A customer of Zenith Bank Plc, Dr. Ola Sandra Ndukwe, has expressed her disappointment as she recounted how the bank failed to recover N450,000 stolen from her account via bank transfer by fraudsters.
According to her, this happened despite that details of the transactions including names and bank accounts the money was transferred to were traced.
Ndukwe said narrated that she lost her ATM cards and proceeded to block online transactions on her account, using self-service codes.
She said she only depended on her mobile application for confirmation of transactions on her bank account. And according to her, when she complained to Zenith Bank customer care agents, she was told that her transaction alert was active.
Unfortunately, she said some days back, her mobile bank app was hacked during which she lost a sum of N450,000.
Recounting her ordeal on her Twitter page, she said, “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 A total of 300k was already withdrawn at this time.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.”
Similarly, another Zenith Bank customer on Twitter, @Kuddyy__ said, “My own Zenith Bank account got hacked August 31st and a total of N1.527m was moved. My account was empty. We still dey drag the matter till date cause I know how hard I work for my money. You see that bank, they’re known for criminal acts.”
Also, @adisababa_ said “Same @ZenithBank again, 400k (N400,000) was deducted from my Dad’s account while he was at the ATM just last week. I felt bad when he told me about the scene. Reported to the 2 branch managers nothing was done about it. They actually changed his pin while he was at the ATM after the 1st withdrawal.”
When contacted, the Team Lead, Media Relations, Zenith Bank Group, Ayoola Kushimo declined calls made to his phone number. Also, he had not responded to any of the text messages sent to him regarding the issue at the time of filing this report.
Story, excluding headline taken from Sahara Reporters