Joshua Nwabunike, an Anambra crypto trader, has narrated how N2 million disappeared from Francesca Nwabunike, his sister’s Guaranty Trust Bank account.
Nwabunike told FIJ that his family had agreed to pool their resources together in the GTB account managed by Francesca.
“My family agreed we would have a family funds account to be managed by my sister and so an account was opened under her name,” he told FIJ.
“She has a debit card but never used it, not even for withdrawals or any online transaction. Everyone including her had their personal accounts. There was no need for the money.”
Nwabunike said they did not suspect anything until his sister had difficulty transacting with GTBank’s USSD code in June 2022.
“Everything was fine until July 7, when she wanted to send money to me from the account. She attempted to use the *737* of our bank but it was not working. She tried it multiple times but it was unsuccessful.
“We assumed it was the bank server having issues and decided to leave it till the next day.”
The crypto trader further stated that the next day, a series of debit alerts thronged his sister’s phone to the tune of N2 million.
“The following day, she woke up and began to receive debit alerts from nowhere. The alerts were in multiples of N197,000 and ran into N2 million,” he said.
“All the debits came at once but we didn’t know what to do because it was a weekend. We rushed to the GT Bank in Bridge Head, Onitsha, and we were lucky to meet a bank officer who helped us block the account to stop further debits.
“But then, the money wasn’t there again and what was left was nothing compared with what was stolen.”
Nwabunike said when they went to the bank to complain, GT Bank ascertained that it was fraud but did nothing to recover the money.
“We went to the bank the following Monday and they confirmed to us it was a fraudulent transaction. The officials asked us to fill a form, which we did, but till now, we haven’t heard anything from them and have not received a dime back.
“We don’t even have the money to pursue the case legally.”
FIJ noted in the description of the fraudulent transaction that it was carried out in Yaba, Lagos. The receipt read, “PAGATECH LIMITED, YABA NG.”
FIJ’s email to GTBank for comments and a message sent on Twitter on the fraudulent transaction were yet to be responded to as at press time.
Source : FIJ
