In response to complaints about unauthorised cash withdrawals at PicknPay till points, PicknPay has announced upgrades to their till points.

A shopper had complained that on two separate occasions, PicknPay tellers had made unauthorised cash withdrawals when he was paying for his purchases. John Swanepoel, Pick n Pay’s General Manager: Business Intelligence, says that the incidents were thoroughly investigated, and it was discovered that in both instances, the teller had made an error by inadvertently touching a cash-back icon on the till.

“We take this type of error seriously and have added an extra layer of verification to our till points. The cashier now cannot access the cash-back functionality on the till until they have answered in the positive to a pop-up validation screen. This will prevent the accidental capture of a cash-back on the till,” says Swanepoel.

While PicknPay maintains that both transactions were made in error, it highlights the importance of checking your till slip to see how much is debited from your card.

While genuine errors can be made, by not being more vigilant, we open ourselves up to more systemic fraud. This applies not only to point-of-sale cash withdrawals but transactions such as tips at restaurants, where the waiter can inflate the tip if you are not observant.

South Africans remain fairly trusting when it comes to card transactions. We hand over our card and allow the teller to authorise the transaction – only handing back the device to enter our PIN.

In the UK for example, tellers refuse to touch your card and as a customer, you are in control of authorising the transaction and confirming the amount that is processed.

While retailers need to ensure that our shopping experience is as secure as possible, we also need to be more mindful when we spend.