According To Punch, An Abuja-based businesswoman, Mrs Juliet Okpako, is currently devastated after losing N2.8m to a fraudster who posed as a bank official. The distraught woman said trouble started when a lady contacted her on the telephone and claimed to be calling from her bank. She said the caller, who identified herself as Ms. Joy, told her she called to warn her not to disclose her account details to anyone under any disguise. According to her, she did not suspect the caller because she kept warning her that if anybody asked for her Bank Verification Number or any of her bank details, she should not make the information available to the person.
Okpako said,
“Somebody called me and she said she was calling from my bank. She said some people had been scamming some of their customers. She said they were trying to rectify something. She asked whether I had received any messages. I told him no. She said I should check my phone and send back the message they sent me to her“.
I sent the number to her and I received another one. She said I was going to receive another message from the bank. And when I saw the message, it was from my bank. I did not suspect anything, as she kept on telling me that if anybody asked for my BVN and all that, I should not send it.
Immediately after I sent that number, I started receiving debit alerts. That was how I knew I had been scammed. I rushed to my bank, but before I got there, all the N2.8m in my bank had been withdrawn. They transferred N200,000 multiple times to other accounts.
“They also used N100,000 to recharge some telephone numbers. I opened the account just to save the money to start a new business.”
She lamented that after all her efforts to block the account failed, the last money in her account was debited when she was asked to get a form before the account could be blocked.
She added,
They first directed me to go to court, and from there we went to the Police ‘A’ Division in Suleja to make a report. I gave up after going to court. The police and then the bank said they could not trace the numbers that all the money and airtime were sent. It was when I was trying to get a form that the last money was debited. Contacted, the FCT Police Public Relations Officer, Josephine Adeh, was not available for comment as of the time this report was filed.
