In early 2022, and while planning to travel abroad, Dapo Amosun (not real name) applied for a business travel allowance through the Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB).

Amosun told FIJ that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) approved his application for BTA on time but GTB said they didn’t have dollars enough to treat his application.

When he noticed GTB did not treat his application with the urgency it deserved, he went on Twitter on March 21, 2022, to register his displeasure, tagging a handle he thought belonged to the financial institution.

READ ALSO: ‘No Refund’, GTBank Tells Customer Whose N264,000 Went Missing

“After registering my displeasure, one of the Twitter pages I assumed to be a GTB customer support handle asked me to send a message to them on WhatsApp, and I did,” Amosun said.

According to screenshots obtained by FIJ, a fake GTB customer care agent who introduced herself as Mercy asked for Amosun’s account number and activation codes.

To get Amosun to do her bidding, Mercy told him that the generated token would enable the bank authorise his request for BTA.

“When I sent the first code to her, I realised that N1 million was suddenly debited from my bank account. After the second code was sent to her, I got debited of an additional N500,000,” Amosun said.

“It was later I realised I had been dealing with a fraudster. That was how I lost N1.5 million to her.”

A Truecaller search of the WhatsApp number that chatted with Amosun revealed the name ‘Guaranty Trust’.

READ ALSO: Lagos Lawyer Paid for UK Visa Appointment Via GTB. Five Months Later, TLS Hasn’t Received It

“I rushed to GTB Pako branch, Ipaja road, to lodge a complaint. The bank officials said they were going to work on it,” Amosun said.

“The GTB customer that attended to me later said nothing could be done about the fraudulent transaction.”

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