N175,560 Saved in GTB Customer’s Account ‘Used to Order Uber’ Without His Consent

On Thursday, December 7, David Ozuem woke up to debit alert notifications on his Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) account.

The Lagos resident first received a N9,340 debit notification at 4:55 am, then a N6,000 notification at 5:09 am. More money kept leaving the account until N175,560 had vanished.

According to the notification receipts FIJ saw, all the money went to Uber, a ride-hailing service.

“I called the bank as the alerts were coming, but no one responded,” Ozuem told FIJ. “I tried blocking my card myself, but it did not work. I could not even access the bank app. When they finally picked, they blocked my card, but money kept going.”

Ozuem said he had not left his house since December 4, and neither did he give anyone access to his account nor patronise the Uber service during that time.

He told FIJ that he visited a branch of the bank in Lagos and was told his account was used to complete a transaction with Uber.

“I went to the Ikotun branch very early on Thursday morning, and all the customer care personnel there said to me that someone used my ATM card information for online transactions,” Ozuem said.

“They said my account was used to order Uber because that was the alert description. One customer care guy was showing me that the transaction was from December 5 to 6, and not that very Thursday I was receiving the alert.

“They came up with a reply that the Uber merchant they contacted said services had been rendered and it was a successful transaction.”

On Thursday, FIJ sent an email to GTB and Cornelius Onuoha, one of the bank’s public relations officers, but as of press time, none of them had responded.