Date: 2016-07-22

As modern technology develops with new trends so also renewed modes of dispossessing bank customers of their monies kept in the banks. In this piece, Ahmed 'Lateef takes a look at the harbinger of the fraudulent activity and the end result for the unsuspecting money bank depositors.

The advent of new technology in the world has re-strategized ways of conducting businesses be it in learning, trade, transport, governance and most especially in the banking sector.

Transaction of most of business are done through what is now widely known as e-technology

Visit to banking halls daily would attest to the fact that the deployment of technology in the operation was not only changing the face of doing business, but also expedite it.

In the daily transaction prior to the development of technology, both the deposit and withdrawal were performed with customers moving around with cash.

This no doubt, posed threat to life of depositors and even the banks. Through movement of huge cash, there is high tendency of men of the underworld hijacking it.

Using technology in banking transaction today otherwise referred to as internet banking is considered safe, stress-less and seamless, and customers usually receive advices from their banks on the need for them to key into the growing trend of modernity.

Although depositors with either fat bank accounts or those who have considerable amount of money in their account are mostly target and recipients of the messages.

In the same vein, those who have access to internet facilities on their mobile hand-sets are usually targeted for the words of advice.

But no matter how laudable and eventful the new technology might be, the other way round of this double edge sword could be disappointing and deleterious.

Several new fraud cases in the world are committed through internet or online transactions.

And hardly would a day pass by without bank depositors receiving alert on their mobile telephone intimating them of development in their accounts.

Sometimes, most of the messages would require the innocent depositors to send confidential informations about their accounts or Bank Verification Number (BVN) to an unknown telephone line for rectitude on their bank accounts. The telephone lines used vary from one network to another.

In another dimension, the dubious messages could be rooted through ostensible problem on automated teller machine (ATM) card, a situation that sometimes send jitters down spine of unsuspecting bank depositors.

One of the fraudulent messages read thus, "Dear Customer, Due to System Upgrade Your ATM CARD has been de_activated to re_activate call, Mr Raymond on 08061655894".

Dialling the telephone number is what the innocent bank customer needs (if wisdom does not prevail at that point in time) following which instruction would be handed down by the questionable elements.

Their request is usually simple. They would ask the victims to send certain digits of their ATM card to enable them fast track the dubious solution.

If the unsuspecting bank customers danced to the tune unwittingly, wiring monies out of their accounts become ease.

Almost everyday, many Nigerians are falling victim of the fraudulent transaction.

The latest mode of wiring money out of account might have gone a step further with inexplicable disappearance of monies in the accounts of depositors.

As appalling as the trend is, the menace is maneuvering its way into Kwara State. That bank officials also take active role in the transaction has become suspicious.

In Ilorin, Kwara State capital, many customers of depositors money banks had been swindled through unscrupulous means.

There have been reported cases of money disappearing in the accounts of innocent depositors leading to suspicion that bank officials might have connived with other collaborators to drag money out of people's account without their prior consent.

It was reported that some bank officials of a new generation bank in Omu-Aran, Irepodun Local Government Area of the state carried out a transaction on the account of a cooperative society where the group was debited to have taken huge sum of money as loan while in actual fact, officials of the bank were at the centre of the transaction.

Just recently a female bank depositor with a branch of United Bank for Africa (UBA), Oja-Oba, Ilorin, Mrs Hauwa Abdulbaki, raised an alarm over sudden disappearance of huge sum of money in her account.

According to her, dubious transactions were carried out in account two times where a sum of N408,000 was wired out in the first instance while another sum of N15,000 was also withdrawn in quick succession.

When confronted on whether she gave out her confidential information about her bank account to an intruder, she denied it, insisting that she suspected foul play among bank officials.

The message she wrote to this newspaper partly reads,

"As I pen down this emotion laden piece, my heart is drenched in tears and devastated owing to the unexpected fraud perpetrated in my United Bank of Africa account domiciled in Ilorin, Kwara State capital, resulting in series of withdrawals of a sum of N408,000.00 by an authorized person or persons.

"To be precise, the account is under the watch of the Oja-Oba branch of UBA in Ilorin.

"How this fraudulent transaction was carried out was still a mystery to me between February 22 and 23, 2016.

"All efforts to retrieve the money proved futile in spite of several complaints lodged at the Oja-Oba, Ilorin Branch of UBA to ascertain the source of dubious transaction, retrieve the money involved and prevent future recurrence.

"After the complainants were made, the bank assured me of discreet investigation and block the account forthwith, but unfortunately no action was taken.

"However, to my utter dismay, another dubious transaction was performed on my account on Friday July 1, 2016 following which my account was debited N15,000. The person who withdrew the money still live in the realm of mystery.

"The series of complaints made to the bank management had not yielded any positive result except that the officials of the bank were trying to heap the blame on me for what I didn't have knowledge about.

"Because of this lackadaisical stand of the bank, am inclined to believe that there was internal connivance and involvement in the use of fictitious people to make subtle, but unauthorized withdrawals from my account.

"Or how else could one explain a situation where what appeared to be a fraudulent matter was not properly investigated in the first instance until the second one was committed.

"The situation caused me severe pains and psychological trauma, the result of which was the illness I took for some period of time.

"What prompted this piece was the negative effect the situation caused me and my household, particularly now that cash has become ashes in our mouth.

When contacted, the branch manager of the bank however told our correspondent that the branch had received and acknowledged the receipt of a letter forwarded to it by a legal firm, wanting it to furnish them with relevant information and unravel the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the money.

He said the branch had sent the letter to the Head Office of the bank where forensic experts are trying to unveil the identity of those behind the fraud.

Commenting on the development yesterday, spokesman of the state police command, DSP Okasanmi Ajayi, said the dubious message of the fraudulent characters had gone viral and warned unsuspecting depositors against falling victim.

He explained that the command was aware of the mode of syndicated messages, asking bank customers to always visit their banks to inquire for more information on their account and not from unknown sources.

Ajayi said the force was sensitizing innocent people on the need to be aware of the fraudulent practices and also put measures in place to contain the activities of the fraudsters.