DoJ halts EFT maintenance payments after suspected internal security breach
The Department of Justice has suspended EFT Child Maintenance payments after the system was compromised.
Picture: © zimmytws/123rf.com
John Maytham speaks with Felicity Guest, Internationally Accredited Financial Abuse Specialist, Founder of Child Maintenance Difficulties in South Africa.
Listen to the interview in the audio below.
The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development detected fraudulent activities on its online system MojoPay in May.
Following this, they suspended the now compromised system, and all payments are being made manually.
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How is the amount for child maintenance calculated?
According to Guest, the department suspects the breach happened internally, and beneficiary details were changed.
This means recipients have to collect funds from their nearest court, which is not always feasible.
Guest says that the beneficiaries are not notified when these problems happen, and there have been several breaches.
“It affects transport for children to get to school. It affects food.”
- Felicity Guest, Internationally Accredited Financial Abuse Specialist
She adds it would make far more sense to direct debit orders to the beneficiaries instead of using a third-party payment system.
Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the interview.