Start the fraud timeline

The one idea

Tonight you know it was 14:32 when the OTP arrived, because you looked at the clock. In three days it will be "mid-afternoon". In three weeks, "sometime that day". Memory decays fastest in the first hours — exactly when nobody feels like doing paperwork. The timeline you write today is the spine of every later step: the bank complaint, the records request, the ombud file.

Compare:

"I think I got a strange SMS after lunch, and the money went off later that afternoon. I called as soon as I noticed." — a story. Nothing in it can be checked.

versus

"14:32 OTP SMS arrived (did not share it). 14:36 R14,900 debit — did not recognise it. 14:41 phone lost signal. 16:05 reported, ref FRD-88213, agent Sipho." — a case. Every line can be matched against a bank or network record.

What a timeline entry needs

Three parts: a time (as precise as you have), a fact you directly observed, and where the proof lives (SMS still on phone, screenshot taken, bank statement line). Facts only — "the agent sounded evasive" is a feeling; "the agent said a supervisor would call within 24 hours; no call came" is a checkable fact. Guesses you cannot avoid get labelled: "approx 15:00 (unverified)". An honest gap beats a confident guess, because one disproven guess taints every accurate line around it.

Try it now

Open your notes app and build the template now, while calm: three columns — TIME | WHAT HAPPENED | PROOF. Then practise on something mundane: timeline the last hour of your day in five entries. The skill transfers directly.

Your win today

You capture time-stamped, checkable facts while they exist. Your future dispute file already has its spine.