When Adekemi Adedayo (not real name), an Ogun State-based resident, needed to make phone calls via her MTN line on September 17, she was told her account was too low for the call she wanted to make.

She then received a shocker when she checked her airtime account balance and found that it was empty.

“Around 7 or 8 pm that Sunday evening, I picked my phone to make some calls and was surprised at the feedback I got that my account was empty,” Adedayo told FIJ.

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“The airtime was not only gone, my balance was on zero. Meanwhile, a text message from the telecommunications company on Thursday showed I had over N7,000 as balance. This was three days to the period I made the shocking discovery.

“Also, there is no amount of calls I would have made within the timeframe that would have made me exhaust my balance.”

The Ogun resident said she immediately called the network provider’s customer care agent the same night and was told that she had bought MTN 2.5GB data worth N500 and someone had also transferred N7,800 to an untraceable number.

“The customer care agent affirmed that I had over 7,000 as balance. She also confirmed I had sent N500 airtime to another number,” said Adedayo.

“Then she said that someone had also transferred N7,800 to another number through the MTN share and sell but the number could not be traced. This was where the problem began.

“The customer care agent added that the person had first transferred N5,000 and then N2,800. She said that I would have to visit their office to get the recipient’s number.”

Adedayo said when she was not satisfied with the feedback she got, she called another customer care agent who gave her a similar feedback.

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“When I visited their office in Ikeja, Lagos, on September 18, they told me that the transaction was carried out through my phone but they still could not verify the number of the recipient as it could not be traced at their end,” said Adedayo.

“During one of my conversations with them, they even said it seemed to be a fraudulent transaction and they would look into it.

“But one surprising thing is that I didn’t get any notification on my phone about the debit. The last message I have is from the Thursday preceding the Sunday which showed that I had thousands of naira worth of airtime.

“What is more confusing is that MTN keeps telling me that they can’t ascertain the recipient. It is really frustrating. If MTN can’t ascertain the number my N7,800 airtime was transferred to, who would be able to do that? It is really suspicious.”

When FIJ made a phone call to MTN’s customer service desk for comments on the incident on Thursday afternoon, a representative, who chose not to state her name, said she could see the number that received Adedayo’s N7,800 on her system. She, however, added that she was not at liberty to disclose it this reporter.

“Tell the person who registered the MTN line to go to the nearest MTN office with his or her National Identification Number (NIN) and a police report,” the representative said.