A customer of First Bank of Nigeria Plc, Ms Halimat Sheji has narrated how she was defrauded of N123,400 by fraud sters operating around the Point Of Sale (POS) box, with alleged connivance of the unidentified bank staff.

According to Ms Halimat, despite several complaints to the bank, it  has not found out what actually happened and that each time she visited the bank,  she would be  told that they were doing something about it.

“I slotted my ATM card into a machine located somewhere in Abuja and withdrew 40, 000. While still at the ATM spot, two men distracted me, claiming to offer help which I refused but when I slotted my card again in the machine to continue my transaction, it showed me a “card reported lost, card retained.

“When I went into the banking hall to complain, the person in charge went to check the machine and came to inform me that my card was not among the cards he saw. He advised me to block the card and also freeze the account.

“Immediately I authorized the freezing of my account on March 5, but to my amazement, when I re-opened the account on March 14, I was told that a Point of Sale (PoS) was used to withdraw N123,400 from my account in two installments of N100,900 and N22,500. My contention now is how a withdrawal can be made from an account that has been frozen and ATM card blocked.”

This is even as customer of Access Bank Plc, Cyril Ibe, narrated how he transferred N30, 000 to a client from a PoS and the person had not received the money till date.

Ibe said that when he visited the bank to complain, he was first told that the money went into another client’s account of which they gave his name.

He frowned at the bank’s mistake, saying it had caused a friction in his relationship with his client.

“When I called my client whom the bank told me the money was wired into his account to refund the cash, he vehemently told me he did not receive any money but that he will check with his bank. When he eventually checked with his bank, there was no transaction of such because he printed his bank statement and forwarded same to me. I went back to Access Bank and requested for my statement, when they printed it, I found out that the money was not transferred into the account of my client that the bank accused. The money went into an account that I do not know the owner. I suspect something very fishy with the bank and as it stands, my money is hanging,” yet, another customer of Access Bank Plc, Mr Paul Aliyu, said that customers had become victims of fraud for entrusting their resources to banks, adding that about N94,000 was deducted from his account to fund a purported loan that he did not apply for or collected.

”I received a message from Access Bank that my digital loan is due repayment that I should fund my account to avoid charge of one per cent on the outstanding loan. To the best of my knowledge, I have never gone to any bank to collect loan and I don’t pray to do it in my lifetime. Immediately, I went to the bank and complained and they said someone used my phone to collect the loan and I told them that my phone was stolen. I told them I didn’t apply for any loan and my money should not be tampered with but they told me that it is not possible. I applied for my bank statement to at least see the amount for the loan but to my surprise, there was no deduction of loan reflected in the bank statement.

”But they directed me to meet another official who handed another statement of account to me but the account number on the statement he gave me was not mine. He told me that they opened a loan account for me but I asked him how they can open a loan account for me without my consent.”

Aliyu said that he forwarded his complaints to the Consumer Protection Department of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

He said that it took the intervention of the CBN for his money to be refunded.

Aliyu wondered what would have been the fate of an ordinary citizen who was ignorant of the steps to take to recover his or her money.

“I wonder the measures that banks are putting in place to protect their customers monies, especially in this season of insecurity where phones and other gadgets owned by customers can be stolen from them easily.”

Source: NAN.