The last time Clement Oku, a resident of Lagos State, withdrew from his Guaranty Trust Bank (GT Bank) account was on Sunday, and with a balance of N310,000, he walked into a bank to withdraw but met the shock of his life.
His account had been emptied, and this was without his authorisation. Even worse, he got no notification for this transaction.
He told FIJ that he found out he was a victim of bank fraud when a cashier at the GT Bank branch in Alausa disclosed to him that he had no money in his account.
According to Oku, the cashier disclosed that five to six online transactions were made the previous day with CONTEC Global, a company he had neither heard of nor made any purchases from.
Oku said the cashier then issued him a statement of account that day but it did not reflect the fraudulent transaction because he had not been debited for it.
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He said the bank also informed him that the money was yet to be disbursed but it was blocked and would be disbursed to the recipient on February 25. He was then given the contact details of his account officer, who promised to assist but failed to respond to numerous calls and messages.
“At 2:50 pm on Tuesday, I received debit alerts totalling N300,000. How did the scammers deplete my funds despite the bank being aware of the situation?” Oku asked.
“When questioned by bank staff, I affirmed that no one else had access to my ATM card and I had not attempted to make any online purchases. So, why did GT Bank treat my complaints with such levity?”
FIJ contacted GT Bank for comments on the matter via one of their email addresses but received no response.
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