A pensioner, Mrs Comfort Ashaye was allegedly chased away by Diamond Bank manager in Ikeja, Lagos after she had tried to make a withdrawal from her bank account which initially accumulated a total sum of N572, 000. The money allegedly disappeared from her account due to fraudulent withdrawals from her account.
The story which was revealed on Wednesday evening on the Facebook Page of President/Founder of Consumer Advocacy Foundation of Nigeria CAFON, Sola Salako Ajulo, pleaded that people make the story reach the well to do so as to properly investigate and help the woman get back her money.
Below is an alleged true story behind the withdrawal made on Mrs Comfort Ashaye’s Diamond Bank Account;
“Our customer (comfort Ashaye) came to the branch sometime in march this year to transact and was told she had insufficient bal of N2 on her account..she expressed confusion and pain.
The branch mgr took her into her office to comfort her and get better clarity on her account status. Upon further probe, it was discovered numerous mobile app withdrawals from her acct in excess of N500k. She was.asked if she had permitted/authorized any transaction by any means. She said no but informed of a certain male that called her asking for her BVN details. She also informed she hardly used her phone as its always under her pillow at home. Though she had the phone with her that fateful day and she showed the branch manager and DB staff the no that called her, which was a privately owned no (080).
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Further investigations led the DB staff to call the no which was answered but the guy also hung up as quickly as he picked it. Mamas phone also showed evidence of a 4 digit code- her mobile app pin in her sent msgs to this same unknown no. She claimed that she lived alone and all her kids lived elsewhere. However, DB promised to investigate further to assist urgently. Her subsequent visit after the easter break was with her son who came and he caused a scene witnessed by customers at the banking hall. He rained abuses, threats, causes and even called DB fraudulent.
The bank security team came Into.the hall due to.this and with the DB staff tried to calm him and mama also joined to plead on his behalf. The DB branch team confirmed to mama that the matter had been escalated to the fraud unit in the bank and the unit had identified one od the fraudulent withdrawals to an account at fidelity bank and they were contacted to block the acct.although the funds had been moved since and the account owners unreachable. Following that feedback to mama ashaye, the branch was visited by an investigative journalist, who wanted our side of the story before going public.
As per their policy, he was asked to get the customers introductory letter as the customers information was private. however he was informed of what transpired at mama’s initial visit and the fact that she was. called by an unknown person and her pin sent to.the same number. The journalist expressed surprise as these details were unknown to him and he reiterated that he could use same number to track the criminals as he had successfully done in the past. He collected the branch manager details and promised to come back to the bank within 2 weeks, but was not heard from him again. The investigation was also concluded and customer was fully briefed of their negligence and the bank was not liable but she maintained that she won’t take that, accusing that there must be an insider. This matter was since concluded in April after the son’s threat to deal with the bank.”
