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A Customer of the Guarantee Trust Bank Plc, popularly called GTBank, Comfort Mufutau has called out the bank as she alleges fraudulent activities that saw the bank stealing her money to the tune of N215, 000, (Two Hundred and Fifteen Thousand Naira) from her account.
Comfort Mufutau, has cried out over the unauthorized debits of N215,000 from her GTBank account for the purchase of recharge cards from an e-commerce store, Jumia Nigeria, as Precious Eze’s Blog learnt that Mufutau wanted to transfer the sum of N5,000 to someone using her GTBank mobile application when she discovered that her account had been emptied by the bank.
The 36-year-old lady said she immediately approached the bank’s branch in Sango, Ogun State, to lodge a complaint, after she had requested for her statement of account to enable her trace the missing funds, but discovered that the missing money was used in purchasing recharge cards on Jumia, adding that she never initiated.
According to her, on October 5, 2021, I was at home for the Teacher’s Day holiday and was about to transfer N5,000 to someone using my GT Bank App, only to discover that I could not see the sum of N215,000 I left in my account, so, I quickly went to the Sango 2 branch of bank to lodge a complaint. I told them to print my statement of account and we found out that my money was used to purchase something from Jumia.
I contacted Jumia to look into the issue and its representative, one Tomi, replied that the money was used in purchasing recharge cards. I asked for the number used in purchasing the recharge cards but was told that they did not have the power to release the customer’s details.
Comfort Mufutau further said that “In my GTBank App, I saw that my balance remained N2,000 and I was also seeing a booked balance of N215,000, indicating that the money had been removed from my account because of an ongoing transaction. All efforts to prevent the N215,000 booked balance from becoming successful, including blocking her account, proved abortive.
She alleged that the porosity of the bank’s system contributed to the unauthorized debits.
“It was later I started receiving debit alerts for transactions I never initiated. The recharge cards were purchased at N10,000, N50,000 in four places, and N5,000, making N215,000. A banker at the GTBank head office told me that the first debit of N10,000 was used to test if my money could be withdrawn.
“I later received the debit alerts on October 7 and 8 for transactions done on the 4th and 5th. I did not give anyone OTP or initiate any transaction requiring OTP. Surprisingly, I saw seven OTPs I never initiated on my phone, but I was home alone and never received any call or gave anyone OTPs, so how was the transaction completed?” she queried.
On October 7, 2021, Comfort Mufutau said she petitioned the Head, Legal Department of GTBank regarding her case, but did not get a response.
In the petition which was titled, ‘Fraudulent Disappearance Of N215, 000 In My GTBank Account’ Comfort said she had also petitioned the Area F Police Command in Ikeja, Lagos State.
According to a document obtained, indicates that the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Area F, John Ali-Zongo, petitioned the Head of Legal Department, Jumia Nigeria, over the same case, as the document, dated October 20, 2021, read in part,
“This office is investigating a case of criminal conspiracy and stealing in which the fleeing suspect(s) used transaction numbers to perpetrate the crime. “You are kindly requested to furnish the office with the following information: name, address and location of the airtime purchasers/beneficiaries; phone numbers, photographs of the airtime purchasers/beneficiaries, among others”.
Around 10.13am the following day, Mufutau said she got an email from Jumia regarding her case and the email read, “Kindly note that we are liaising with the police regarding your request. Kindly follow up with the police to get updated information about the issue”.
The teacher said she received another email from the e-commerce store that it was unable to find any document from the police regarding her case, but urged her to send an acknowledgement letter of the area commander’s petition to Jumia, which she said she had done but was yet to receive either the details of the suspects, if any, from the police.
When contacted, one Chichi Ikonta who spoke on behalf of GTBank promised to connect our correspondent to an official for reaction, but was yet to so as at press time.