Zenith Bank may soon be dragged to court after one of its customers identified as Dr. Ola Sandra Ndukwe, detailed how N450,000 disappeared from her account.
In a series of tweets cited by BizWatch Nigeria, Ndukwe lamented that the money disappeared in spite of the fact that she blocked digital transactions on her account with Zenith Bank after she lost her Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card.
According to Ndukwe, her mobile bank app was hacked during which she lost a sum of N450,000.
The fraud victim noted that the financial institution failed to recover the stolen money in spite of the fact that details of the transactions, including names and bank accounts that the money was transferred to, were traced.
The tweets read: “Few weeks prior to this, I lost my wallet which had my First bank and Zenith bank ATM cards in it. I immediately blocked both cards through the self service codes. Same day, I got a new First bank card.
“Weeks later, I tried doing some transactions and realized the zenith app couldn’t function without a card/Token. I had none. I went to the zenith bank, requested for a new card and an E-token. I logged into the Zenith mobile app and discovered both the “lost” card and the current card were showing “Active.
“I complained and the customer service assured me the stolen card wasn’t active. Also, I wasn’t receiving alerts, both credit and debit alerts. Same customer care claimed my alert service was “on”.
“Fast forward to 2 weeks ago, I tried logging into my app and noticed I couldn’t have access to my app. “It showed “Register”. I didn’t understand why the usual “login” wasn’t displayed. My gut instinct told me sth was definitely wrong. This was by 5:23p.m. I made several attempts to log in, all proved abortive.
“Immediately, I received a code from Zenith bank. I knew there was a problem. My friend & I tried blocking the card & account, It repeatedly read “Error”.
“By 5:33pm I succeeded in logging into my app via the E-token. A total of 300k was already withdrawn at this time. I got to the bank, no one was available except the security. They tried blocking my account, same error. They reached out to the bankers.
“They repeatedly said *dial*9…bla bla. Same thing I have been doing for over 30 mins. Like do I look like I’m a fool? I was asked to send an emergency mail to Zenith, I did…to no avail. I sent this mail by 6:30pm. They replied after 1hour. By then I had lost 450k.
“As an individual, I was trying every possible means to stop whoever it is that had access to my app since the bank obviously couldn’t Help. It was at this time I found out that “Two devices were active at same time” My phone and ACCOUNT MANAGER.
“I finally succeeded in deleting the account manager. By 8:13p.m, Zenith Bank replied my mail, that my account had been blocked. But the name of the person that had access to my app is there with his account details. All the transactions they made. The account details etc.
“The most painful part of this is that they used 100k to play “Bet”.
“I was at the bank as early as 7am the following morning. I was told: my alert system was deactivated. Now the big question is…”by who? It’s only a banker that can do this. Reason I never received any alert all through this incident.
“They can not restrict the accounts the money was transferred to unless I provide some stupid report or evidence that I did not grant anyone access to my phone. They were able to confirm an iPhone 6 was used for the transactions. I know no one using such phone.
“Apparently the code I received was for my daily limit to be increased to above a million. Thank God I had an E-token. Zenith bank emergency service is zero. They have no regard for their customers. Every incident that happened was well documented by me.”
What this means for Zenith Bank…
With Ndukwe, and other customers of the financial institution having their monies disappear from their bank accounts, Zenith Bank may have a lot to worry about in the future.
According to the distraught customers, the financial institution cannot be trusted, as some of its staff engage in fraudulent activities.
Just recently, a former Customers Service Executive with Zenith Bank Plc, Unyime Faithlyn Akinmade was remanded in the Nigerian Correctional Services facility over an alleged N16 million fraud and issuance of dud cheques.
