Margaret Alete, a civil servant, has narrated how she lost N27,000 to Bangbet, a betting site, through an unauthorised debit on her United Bank for Africa (UBA) account in April.

Alete told FIJ that she woke up in the early hours of April 21 to a debit alert of N27,566 from UBA.

“I saw that my money had been transferred through Paystack to a Bangbet account, despite not initiating any transaction,” Alete said.

“Immediately, I reached out to UBA on Whatsapp and via a Twitter DM. They told me the money had been put on hold and that it would be resolved within 72 hours. They also said they would investigate the issue.”

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Alete said she reached out to UBA again after 72 hours and was told that ‘she was not qualified for a refund’.

“When I didn’t get a response after 72 hours, I reached out again. Then, they told me that I did not qualify for a refund because I divulged my card details, which I didn’t,” she said.

“My card was not missing and the numbers are almost wiped, so it is hard for someone to quickly copy them.”

Upon request, UBA provided her with their findings and also a link to reach out to Bangbet.

“I requested a forensic investigation and they provided me with details of the transaction. I was told the fraudster opened an app with my phone number and committed the fraud,” she said.

“I did not get a one-time password or authorise any transaction, so I was confused on how that could happen.”

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“I reached out to Bangbet and requested the profile of the person who committed the fraud but I was told the user did not exist.”

FIJ made several phone calls to UBA for comments but they were not answered. A text message sent to the company has also not been responded to at press time.