On October 5, Comfort Mufutau, a teacher, opened her Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) app and found her account empty.
Still in doubt, she checked her phone again and found debit alerts and numerous one-time passwords (OTP). Her account had been debited N215,000.
“I immediately went to a GTB branch in Ota, Ogun State, to lodge a complaint, and they printed my statement of account. That was when I confirmed that I had indeed lost my N215,000,” Mufutau said.
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“I later learnt that the person who performed the operation with my account had purchased an airtime of N10,000 on Jumia a day earlier and I did not notice. Then on October 5, they added their finishing touches; they took N205,000. GTB told me to go to Jumia if I wanted my money back.”
Mufutau emailed Jumia, asking to know where the transaction took place, the phone number of the person who initiated the transaction, and what the person purchased with the N205,000 GTB could not account for.
“Jumia sent me a reply, saying they would not answer my questions unless I submitted a police report. They only told me the user purchased airtime of N215,000,” she said.
After attaching them for a police report, officers attached to the Area F police station, Ikeja, Lagos, took advantage of Mufutau’s desperation to swindle her out of N35,000. After collecting the money from her, they dropped a report at Jumia’s office in Yaba, Lagos. But Jumia would not respond until after a week.
When Jumia eventually reached out to Mufutau, they said they were working alongside the police. Jumia also advised her to speak to the police if she had any further complaints.
“In a live chat with a Jumia customer care representative, I asked how I could reach the company directly by phone, but the representative said they had no phone number. I became livid,” she said.
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“On October 28, a Jumia agent called me and said their legal department informed him that no police report had been submitted and they would not give me the phone number of the person who carried out the operation.”
According to Mufutau, there was a lot of back and forth from Jumia. “Right now,” she told FIJ, “I am tired. I just need my money back.”
FIJ emailed Jumia and GTB but got no response. Several calls were also made to CSP Adekunle Ajisebutu, Lagos police spokesperson’s phone number, but it was not reachable.
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