Scam Alert:Fake transaction alerts as the only means of confirmation of your transaction could hurt you



Be wary of that transaction alert as the only means of confirmation of your transaction



A follower of Naijabankers.com, Yusuf sent this piece to the team for onward broadcast and dissemination to the public to be wary of the activities of unscrupulous elements who go about swindling unsuspecting members of the public of their hard-earned monies via pseudo (fake) transaction-alerts.

Please read and be guided.


Please this is a true story which happened just few days ago, and as concerned stakeholders in the industry, it might interest naijabankers.com to carry out further investigations to aid in nipping this in the bud whilst the public is advised to be guided.

My friend advertised for sale of a car and put the price at N2,700,000.00 . A prospective customer called and was given direction on how to get to where the car was parked. He observed the car and informed my friend that he was heading to the bank to make payment and that she should assemble the document ready for collection as soon as payment is made. Shortly after that, alert came to my friend's phone and few minutes after the alert the customer came and all the paper plus the car was handed over to him and he left. To my friends greatest shock, she went to the bank and could not find any money and the bank said that the alert did not come from them. My friend is planning to go to court with her bank. The advice is that alert is no longer a confirmation of payment. Please let's all be careful when doing transactions especially this season now in this technology crazy generation. God be with us all.

Kindly use your medium to intimate the public of this mode of operation by fraudsters.

Our Counsel
Prelimnary investigations conducted by naijabankers.com indicate that this mode of operation is infact not new and might have been used to swindle quite a number persons in times past.

It was also observed that the perpetrators of this 'nefarious act' have mastered the craft of reproducing short messaging after the format of the unsuspecting customer's bank to give the impression that the message is infact an alert from the bank confirming the 'fake-credit'.

An internal auditor with one of the commercial banks who gave his name as Adeoye said he had stumbled on a similar case before and that he noted that such text messaging were done via bulk messaging engine and it had been fraudulently disguised to look like those of the customer's bank.

This is calling on the public to exercise due caution and apply discretion when dealing with hitherto unknown customers. While we do not intend to discredit the alert systems we advise that customers' apply discretion.

Additionally, we advise that banks customers should subscribe to Internet Banking facilities of their banks even if it's for a 'view only' access to be able to view their account balances at all times.

Customers can also enrol for mobile banking with an easy access to their accounts any time at the dial of the products code of their bank.

In the event that the afore mentioned steps appear too technical for the customers, a dash to a nearby ATM or a call through to their account officers to confirm the account balances and the consummation of the said transactions will also help to prevent this fraud.

Adesiji77:
I also got the above story as a BC too but in this age where internet/online banking is easily accessible even on phones, a seller has the opportunity of verifying such transaction alerts online before parting with goods.

Die-hard conservative customers can still do due diligence by calling their relationship managers for confirmation.

Although this is a cheap scam in my opinion, the public still needs to be educated. Thanks for sharing.

dearie:


I agree with you sir...but you will be amazed to know how much have been lost to these fraudsters. Infact we learned that at times they make it impossible for the customers to reach their relationship managers at such times.

Thank God for those of us that are aware.

We just have to spread the word to alert others.

dav8id:

thanks for the alert ..

but wait oooo how the man take knw her account balance ?

cause after credited amount then the finally account balance abi she no check ni

biuti:


Exactly my thought, the final account balance should be at the end of the message. She supposed to tell us if it was also included the alert.

dearie:


There could be insider connivance.

Usually...there's a reason why someone would be a target. Perhaps all the details of the subject needed to perfect the crime would have been in place before taking the leap.

Tonniey:
That's d simple reason I downloaded both access and first bank app. If you drop any money inside my account, I login and check it out. As simple as ABC.