Bank Manager Tells Customer to ‘Forget It’ After N211,000 Disappeared From His UBA Account

Bank Manager Tells Customer to ‘Forget It’ After N211,000 Disappeared From His UBA Account

Abiodun Balogun, an IT security consultant, has detailed how N211,000 vanished from his United Bank for Africa (UBA) account on October 25, 2022.

According to him, the manner in which the money was debited from his account makes him believe it is an inside job.

Balogun told FIJ that two weeks before the incident, he received a strange email, stating that he had just registered for mobile banking with UBA.

This came as a surprise to Balogun, who had never registered for mobile banking on either of his savings and current accounts with the bank.

He swiftly contacted the bank via emails and calls, but they did not respond to him.

“I don’t use mobile banking because of scammers. When I noticed an email saying I had registered for mobile banking on October 8, I immediately sent an email to UBA CFC about this anomaly. I kept on sending emails and calling, but they never replied,” he told FIJ.

“Then, on October 25, I woke up to discover that my current account had lost N200,000 for some BET9JA transactions via the mobile banking app, while N11,000 had been deducted from my savings account.

“This happened to me even though I warned the bank two weeks prior to the incident. How someone could access both accounts defies reason. It is an epidemic, from what I have found out now, and it is mostly from UBA.”

‘FORGET IT, YOUR MONEY IS GONE’ — BANK MANAGER

On October 26, Balogun went to the UBA branch on Agbor Road in Benin to lodge a formal complaint about the incident. To his bewilderment, the bank manager told him to forget about it because the money was gone.

“A customer service lady helped me to lodge the complaint and went to a great length to find out what happened, but the manager, a lady, was unconcerned and even callous in her approach. I was dumbfounded, and I left.”

After the discouraging experience with the branch manager, the IT consultant was forced to email the bank about his missing money, but his complaint was not addressed.

“On October 28, I emailed them again and threatened to go to the EFCC and the CBN. They said they would fix it and I would get a response by November 9. On November 10, they said they would respond by November 17, yet they never responded. I sent over 15 emails to them,” he said.

“It is shocking, honestly. I really feel sad that such scams would happen to me like this. Clearly, UBA staff is involved.”

When contacted via email on Saturday, UBA said a “customer experience expert will be in touch within 24 hours”.