On June 25, Bamidele Dayo, a Nigerian student in the United Kingdom, transferred N10,000 from his United Bank for Africa (UBA) account. One minute later, he got a series of strange debit alerts on his phone: N500,000 in four places and an extra N272,000!
That was how Dayo lost N2.272 million. But when he contacted UBA, their forensic investigation did not show how his money got stolen.
Dayo, who is studying to get a master’s degree, told FIJ that he got an email notification that another phone had been attached to his UBA app. He found this rather shocking as he had not handed his phone or account details to a third party.
“I could log in, yet someone somewhere in Nigeria could still log in on the same mobile app. I wondered how two mobile devices could be attached to one account without me getting an OTP (one-time password),” Dayo told FIJ on Saturday.
He also explained that the debit was done through a mobile transfer by the same account that was attached to his account.
Dayo also told FIJ that he called UBA’s fraud help desk immediately and they told him they would swing into action. He said that the fraud desk told him they would have to lock his account for a forensic investigation to settle the dispute.
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“UBA came up with a forensic report, showing clearly that the app that was used to move that money was excluded from their forensic investigation, which means they could not trace the app that was newly attached to the account that was used to move the money,” Dayo explained.
In the forensic report by UBA, the bank documented that the disputed transaction had been “carried out using his log-in details, and
validated with sensitive authentication data” known to Dayo alone.
“A review of our UBA Mobile Banking enrolment log confirmed that your account was created on the platform on May 31, 2023, another device was added on September 21, 2023, and March 28, 2024, using your valid account credentials and a verification code which was used to
successfully complete/activate the enrolment process was delivered to
your mobile number…,” another section of the forensic reads.
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Dayo explained to FIJ that he once went to a UBA branch in Ikorodu to rectify a bank issue on September 21, while March 21 was the day he changed to a new device in the UK. He also said he had retained possession of his old phone since then.
“Those are the verified devices that were attached to my account, and for them, an OTP was sent to my account, but the one that was used to move my money, there was no OTP sent to me and UBA did not include it in their forensic report,” Dayo told FIJ.
“The money was sent to a Moniepoint account.”
Dayo also said that the loss had affected his fee payment and he had to take a loan to pay his tuition.
He told FIJ that, suspecting foul play, he employed the services of a lawyer. But when his lawyer reached out to UBA via a letter, the bank responded that it would conduct a fresh investigation on July 1.
“We did not get any reply from them till the end of July. So, I told the lawyer to write a reminder note which he sent to them on August 8,” Dayo told FIJ on Saturday.
“UBA now handed a letter that should have got to the lawyer on the 18th of July, but they didn’t send it to him until August 8 when he went to give them the reminder. But what they sent to the lawyer was exactly the same thing as the first forensic report they had sent to me earlier.”
FIJ reached out to UBA via an email on Tuesday but the bank asked FIJ to liaise with the affected customer before the issue could be addressed.
“Kindly liaise with our customer to contact us for further assistance,” UBA’s response read.
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29 replies on “UBA Can’t Account for Strange N2.27m Debit From Nigerian Student’s Account”
This was the same thing UBA did to me, my 10k just went like that, UBA is fraud , they will be destroyed one day, since December last year till now, I haven’t gotten my reversal , I have to leave lectures and be touring to UBA everyday las las I no see my money, na so English dem de speak for there, they are criminal elements, their cyberspace is damn weak
This exact thing happened to my wife in July 2023, #50,000.00 was withdrawn from her account.
UBA gave us exactly the same explanation given to the youngman even when my wife never had the app at any time on her phone.
We petitioned the CBN, and they never made any feedback, after so many e-mails to CBN & UBA we gave up.
Mashn muna godi
Nigerian banks and theft/stealing are 5&6. 40% of their customers had at one point or the other experience this issue. What a system, what a people.
First Bank did the same to my since 4 years ago, when she was in labour room. Leaving her stranded in the hospital in Ghana. 86k gone without reversal.
same with me, my 75k gone no traces, they said I’ve spent it months ago 😀
UBA bank is the most useless bank of this generation, all the branch managers of the affected branches have things to do with those transactions. They’re the sole responsible of all the fraudulent activities going on in that bank. Avoid UBA Bank at all cost now ..
I’m closing my UBA account immediately.. their service and everything about their is very poor and degrading
I was debited one million in my UBA account 17th April 2023 with series of otp which I never initiated and my phone was with my app dis-able , I contacted Fig too but they never gave me proper listening ear for documentation and even the cbn was not helping . Sincerely UBA up til date had not reversed my my money and so many customer UBA defrauded last year , I am appealing for FIG to take proper mitigation on this
That’s how I was double debited by UBA and never get a refund despite series of complaints. They keep tossing me to and from. God will show the bank management the way to hell last last
This all so happen to me in 2020 #50000 was withdrawn from with no trace. UBA IS FOUND OF DOING THIS. That why I closed my account with them
It’s possible.
My brother opened uba account. He discovered that another account number was linked to his phone number. Since uba uses phone number to login, once he logged in his account and the woman’s account will reflect. He tried going to the bank severally but they didn’t change it (that was his only phone number).
One day he mistakenly sent money from the woman’s account to my account. After weeks my account was blocked because the woman reported. I was almost arrested for fraud. After tracing what happened and going through both my brother and my Bank statement, I was able to explain. I took my time to explain to the manager what happened and she understood.
I called the woman to apologize and refunded her money. We went to uba and caused a scene before they made the changes. If my brother was a bad person he would have withdrawn all the woman money as she had a lot of money in there.
UBA scammed me of my 220,000 2021 just like that through internet banking and they used my money to buy things online. Claiming that someone must have snap my card front and back. Then i was leaving with my parents and as that time i wasn’t using the atm card so i hind it because of the savings i was doing in the account. On the 29 march 2021, UBA people started withdrawing my money without debit till 31st of march when the first debit of 15k drop. By that time they have pulled the 220k out from my account. UBA themselves started calling and asking me if am buying anything online i said no, they said they are seeing pending transactions online which will soon drop as debit. April 4th all the pending transactions drop as debit.
After all the investigation that they carried out, it was only 15k that was return to me, the remaining 205k just disappeared like that.
God will Punish UBA and since then i seize to use the bank again
I guess I will have to open another bank account and stop using UBA…. this is getting too much before it got to me…
Same way GTB st*le my 30k till date.
Fij.ng pls what is the process to log complain to u?
In the same manner and style, I was swindled of my N220,000 from my UBA account in June 2024. It appears they have developed a template for shifting the blame to the customer. In my case, my phone was randomly stolen. I immediately activated a PND on the account. The following work day, I made the mistake of reporting that my phone was stolen. It was that same day in the evening that I started receiving the debit alerts in multiples of 20k.
I recharged my phone from UBA ATM and they refused to give me the airtime till now. I hope the customer get his money back
This same incident occurs to me last year October 16th 2023 same UBA bank. A sum of 155,600 was debited from my bank account. I also received an email and otp a night b4 the incident and the next day. On my way to the bank a started receiving debit alert of my own money and till now they haven’t seen any traces of my money
What is happening there to UBA bank
Thanks you very much for the confirmation
UBA keep on doing this Everytime
Sometimes they will just debit money from my account even without withdrawal or transferring
And even if I report they will say that they are going to refund me but I won’t see anything and this has been happening to me since June till now
guess I will have to open another bank account and stop using UBA…. this is getting too much before it got to me…
Reply
Naija banks, that’s the same thing zenith bank did to me when trying to pay for my school fees, later need to withdraw from school and start to be hustling for another admission following year.. It’s really sad experience my brother
In around March 2021 i made 3 different purchases online with my UBA debited card for which I was debited accordingly, however, couple of months later, UBA came back to my account and double debited me for those 3 transactions I made 2 months ago. To my biggest surprise all the 3 transactions history I made in March were deleted from my bank app history. This was how I found out that UBA is a thief and scam. I’d advice anyone to stop using UBA to prevent worries and cries later. Close your UBA account!
I thought it’s only me this thing happened to UBA na thief this same way there moved #140k out of my account and there were giving me stories thief’s
You people will meet ur Waterloo
Make everyone go close their UBA account since they can’t be accountable to their customers…
God Abeg
For like a year…after i opened an acccount that they forced me to…but i rarely used…i was always getting the alerts of another account…i had access to someone else’s account…if not that i was good at heart i could have stolen from it…until after a year later when i changed phones before the alerts stopped.
Same goes for Keystone Bank. N10k gotten for ATMcard and evidence of this erased from their records. As for UBA, Dayo’s story is the same thing my mother went through.
Very sad.