Dr Ola Sandra Ndukwe in series of tweets on Tuesday, narrated the bizarre experience she had with Zenith Bank and how she lost N450,000.
Below is what she said:
“If you’re still banking with Zenith Bank…you better think twice. I never wanted to post this, but for the sake of “innocent” people that may fall victim…I did. Some days back my Zenith App was hacked into. I lost a sum of 450k (my daily limit is 500k).
https://twitter.com/olakhisha/status/1582401730959982592
“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 5:23pm. 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 A total of 300k was already withdrawn at this time.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 to 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 30mins. 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 st same time” My phone and ACCOUNT MANAGER.
“I finally succeeded in deleting the account manager. By 8:13pm, Zenith Bank replied my mail thst my account has been blocked. Funny. But this is why I am making this post…. The name of the person that had access to my app is there with his account details
https://twitter.com/olakhisha/status/1582409487193083905
“All the transactions they made. The account details etc. The most painful part of this is that they used 100k to play “Bet”. My hard earned money
https://twitter.com/olakhisha/status/1582410523874033665
“I was at the bank as early as 7am the following morning. I was told…# 1. 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. 2. They can not restrict thr account…
“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.
“Well, to cut the long story short…I succeeded in transferring my remaining money to my first bank and regretable shut the account down for good. Be careful if you’re banking with Zenith. Be cery careful
“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 theur customers. Every incident that happened was well documented by me.
“You know a bad bank when a staff of same bank is even encouraging you to sue the bank. I don’t think I have that energy because the system is so corrupt that you will spend a million for a half a million lost. This is my just telling you alk to be careful. Zenith bank is a zero.”
Ifunanya Ikueze is an Engineer, Safety Professional, Writer, Investor, Entrepreneur and Educator.