Published 29th Nov, 2022

By Abimbola Abatta

Jumoke Babatunde, a Lagos State resident, has detailed how N268,000 went missing from her United Bank for Africa (UBA) account.

Babatunde told FIJ that the money was deducted at intervals after several unauthorised transactions took place on her UBA account between August and September 2022.

For transactions she initiates on her UBA account, she usually receives alerts, but the bank never sent debit alerts when these unauthorised transactions occurred.

She said several transactions, running into N193,541, were initiated on her account between August 24 and 29, 2022.

As if that was not enough, N75,000 vanished from her UBA account in September, and she never received a debit alert.

“For the August unauthorised transactions, the narration showed WEB purchase transactions. My son said he wanted to use my card for some online transactions, but it did not go through, so it seems the card was hacked along the line. That aside, UBA knows that I don’t do web purchase,” she said.

“When they saw the frequent transactions on my account, they ought to have alerted me. I don’t know if they have a software that notifies them of such strange activities on customers’ accounts and make them contact the concerned customers.

“The one that baffled me more was the one that happened this September. They said I did a USSD transaction. My phone was with me throughout the day the bank said I did the transaction.

“I keep records of my balances, and I had transferred to someone two days earlier. Days after, when I wanted to do a transfer, I saw a difference in my balance.”

Taken aback by this event, Babatunde rushed to the UBA branch located within the Lagos State University (LASU) campus to lodge a complaint on September 29, 2022.

At the bank, she was instructed to write a letter they would forward to the fraud department at their head office.

The affected customer's letter to UBA — The affected customer’s letter to UBA

However, Babatunde has not received a positive feedback since she submitted the letter two months ago.

“In the letter, I reported both the August and September incidents. They said the September deduction was through a USSD transaction. They mentioned a strange phone number where the transaction emanated from, but I told them I never registered that number for USSD,” she said.

“When I asked the bank if I had ever come to change my phone number, they said they did not see any mandate on that. The question is how did that number do a USSD transaction on my account? That is what they cannot tell me now.

“I have been calling them to find out. They said the head office would get back to me, but I have not heard anything from them.”

When FIJ contacted UBA on Tuesday for comments on the issue, Mary C., a representative of the bank, wrote, “This is to acknowledge receipt of your mail regarding your disputed transaction. Kindly be informed that your complaint is receiving attention. We humbly crave your indulgence to please be patient while we provide feedback. Our sincere apologies for any inconvenience, please.”