Tochukwu Chime, an Enugu State resident, has detailed how N874,500 mysteriously left his account after his debit card got stuck in a Zenith Bank ATM.

Chime told FIJ that the incident happened on January 27 at one of the bank’s branches located in 9th Mile, Enugu.

“On January 27, I visited the Zenith Bank branch in 9th Mile to withdraw some money because I needed to settle an urgent bill,” Chime said.

“The queue I met at the branch’s ATM was much, but I endured the long wait till I made it to the machine.

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“After slotting my card into the machine, however, cash was not dispensed. The machine also did not eject my card so I could neither try again nor leave. After waiting for a long period and the machine would still not eject my card, I decided to go inside the bank branch to lodge a complaint to the officials working there.”

‘BUSY BRANCH OFFICIALS’

Chime said he was able to lodge his complaint to two bank officials who had just finished working on ATMs.

“When I told them that my card had been retracted, they said I should enter the branch with them so that they could ascertain that the debit card really belonged to me before handing it back,” Chime said.

“The story changed when I entered the bank, as the lady I was supposed to meet before the card would be given back to me said she was busy and that I would have to wait for some hours before I could be attended to.

“After waiting for hours, she eventually told me that she had checked all the retracted cards and that mine was not there. She then redirected me to one of the two officials I had initially met at the entrance. I mean one of the two officials that had gone into the ATM rooms to work on their machines. She told me to tell him that my card had not been found and that he should go into the ATM room to check for it the second time.

“When I relayed her message to the official, he went into the ATM room the second time. When he emerged, however, he again said my card was still nowhere to be found. One of the security officers present was even also telling him that the particular ATM that swallowed my card had always been problematic.”

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THE DEBIT ALERTS

Chime said when it was clear he would not be able to get his debit card back, he asked the official to immediately help him place a restriction on his account.

“When I requested for a restriction to be placed on my account, the official asked if I couldn’t see that the entire branch was busy. He also said that I would have to come back the following day for my restriction request,” Chime said.

“When I asked if it was safe to leave the restriction request till the following day, he said it was. He also said I had nothing to worry about and that there was even a possibility that my card would have been found by the time I returned the following day.”

Chime would receive a shocker moments after leaving the bank’s premises.

“As soon as I left the branch’s premises, I started receiving debit alerts on my phone,” Chime said.

“N200,000 was first debited from my account. After this, a debit notification of N151,500 followed. Before I could scream for help, I received another SMS alert of a second N200,000 debit, and within seconds, a fourth notification showing that N323,000 had also been removed from my account followed.

“Altogether, N874,500 was debited from my account without my authorisation, and after my card got stuck at the Zenith Bank ATM.”

‘BUSY OFFICIALS’ URGENTLY TREAT REQUEST

Chime said he immediately ran back to the branch to tell its officials what had happened.

“You won’t believe that the people that once said they had no time because they were busy now immediately attended to me when they saw that I was in tears, and after my life savings had been stolen from my account,” Chime said.

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“It was at this point that they now placed a restriction on my account. Contrary to the branch official’s claim that the machine could have ejected the card, and that the people in the queue could have have taken my card and steal the money inside my account, nothing like that was visible when the bank’s CCTV camera was reviewed.

“This means whoever stole my money was an insider working with the bank. Please, come to my aid; my money should be returned to my account. I suffered for it.”

FIJ sent an email to Zenith Bank’s customer care desk for comments on Tuesday morning, but it had not been responded to at press time.