N2.5m Kept in GTB Customer’s Account Used to Make Online Purchases Without Consent

While Damilare Abiodun Atobatele, an Ibadan-based businessman, was asleep on November 8, 2023, N1.6 million was transferred in multiple transactions from his current account to his savings account, where it was later used to make purchases on the internet.

These transactions were performed without his consent, leaving the businessman baffled.

When he woke up and saw the debit alerts the following morning, he went to lodge complaints at a Guarantee Trust Bank (GTB) branch in Bodija, Ibadan.

“They moved my money from my current account to my savings account and moved it elsewhere. When I went to lodge complaints at the bank, I was told I authorised the transactions using my ATM card details. I was shocked because I didn’t initiate them,” Atobatele told FIJ.

Atobatele’s current account shows the N1.5 million transfer.

Atobatele’s savings account shows N1.5 million being used for multiple web purchases via Paystack.

He added that he changed his ATM card at the bank that day and blocked the old one to avoid a recurrence. These unauthorised transactions did not end here for Atobatele.

“On November 15, multiple debit transactions that totaled N950,000 left my current account to my savings account again and were also used to make purchases online like the last time. When I went to complain at the bank again, they said it was done using my ATM card details,” he said.

“How could that have happened with a new ATM card that I collected the week before and had not used anywhere at the time? My brother helped me write letters to the bank, which they acknowledged. I haven’t heard anything from them since then.”