Zenith Bank customer loses N6m in 15 minutes

A customer with Zenith Bank, Esther Udoh, has narrated how N6 million was fraudulently withdrawn from her account on Friday morning within the space of 15 minutes.

Esther, who noted that she opened the account in Idimu, Lagos for the purpose of saving towards a project, said she woke up to the shock of her life on Friday when she noticed six debit alerts of one million naira each.

“To my dismay, I saw not one debit alert, but six debit alerts of one million Naira each, amounting to 6 million naira,” she said, stressing that she rushed to the branch but was poorly attended to by the staff.

Esther, who first narrated the incident via her Twitter handle, @fashionjuel, noted that while she has not gotten any concrete response from Zenith Bank on how the money was removed from her account, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, FCCPC (formerly CPC) and payment platform, Paystack, have acknowledged her complaints.

“CPC asked me to file a complaint on their website, which I did. They have taken it up. Paystack traced the account name and number and sent the information to Zenith bank for further investigation but zenith bank is yet to tell me something tangible. I need my money. All of it. This is my life’s savings of several years. I work so hard, please help me find a way out of this,” she pleaded.

While accusing the bank of complicity, the research chemist said she noticed that other customers also made similar complaints while she was at the bank on Friday.

Other netizens took to her Twitter handle to narrate how they have suffered similar fate.

“That’s how 23k was removed from my zenith account too just like that. My card was with me, I have a token yet money was removed from my account through Paystack. I went to their office, they said there is nothing they can do about (it). I felt angry and helpless,” Yusuf Olakita lamented.

“All this doesn’t matter o. My dad does not have ATM card they withdrew 500k from his account and still withdraw 500k from his fixed deposit. You see the fixed deposit withdrawal is still an unsolved mystery for us till today,” lamented @Olasamzi

“I also got a debit too, through a pos when I don’t have an ATM card. They said they are investigating. I’m patiently waiting for them. 60k debit through a pos when I don’t have an atm card on the account,” noted @IamPearl_icous

“Most of their staff who have Japa might have access to their server because this has been happening often,” added @Odunayo__A

All efforts to get reactions from Zenith Bank proved abortive as one of his media representatives, Ayoola Kusimo disengaged the call immediately the issue was raised. He later promised to call back when another call was put through, a promise he failed to fulfil as of the time of filing this report.