Published 5th Apr, 2022

By Lolade Olu-Ojegbeje

Christy Ibe-Williams, a community health practitioner and Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) customer, has accused the bank of being complicit in the disappearance of N77,300 from her account.

Ibe-Williams told FIJ she got a message from GT Bank, asking her to confirm a code on her GTWorld, the bank’s mobile banking app, on February 17. She ignored the message, yet N77,300 was deducted from her account in favour of Sporty Internet.

“I got a message on my small phone to confirm a code on my bank app,” she told FIJ. “I could not respond to the message because I was busy. Minutes later, I got a debit alert of N77,3300. I opened my bank app to confirm and truly, the money was gone.”

When she complained to the bank, she was told the unauthorized transaction would be resolved in 24 hours. Since then, she has not been refunded.

“I called the customer care and I was told that they would suspend the account temporarily and get back to me in 24 hours. When I called them, they told me my bank app had been tampered with,” she said.

Confused, she went through the transaction again, only to discover that the Internet Protocol (IP) address used to commit the fraud was the same one used to set up her bank app by a representative of the bank in October 2021.

“I went through the app again, only to discover that the IP address used to commit the fraud was the same one used by the customer service representative that opened the account. I have sent the bank messages, they only told me the same thing. I called the representative, but he said he no longer worked in the banking hall,” said Christy.

“I requested for the details of the transaction and I was only told the money was transferred to one Sporty merchant account.”

FIJ made several calls to Cornelius Onuoha, a GT Bank’s spokesperson, but they were not answered. A mail sent to him had also not been responded to at press time.

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