Zenith Bank Blames Chiamaka Agim for Disappearance of N4m from Account

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

The customer of Zenith Bank, Ms Chiamaka Agim, who posted a video on social media of the disappearance of about N4 million from her account, has been blamed for her ordeal.

The video posted by Ms Agim on Tuesday, January 13, 2023, generated reactions on the internet and prompted Zenith Bank to launch an investigation into the matter.

Revealing the outcome of its probe, Zenith Bank said Ms Agim, who claimed to be a former employee of the company, was careless with her phone as it was discovered that her funds were moved from her registered device, which indicates that she must have authorised the transactions or someone had access to her phone to carry out the transfers.

According to Zenith Bank, Ms Agim at no time reported to the bank or the police that her phone was stolen, showing that someone close to her had access to the device to move her funds.

In a two-page investigative report sent to her, it was revealed to the customer how her details were compromised using the same device she has used to carry out mobile banking transactions in the past, which was never repudiated by the complainant.

“Prior to the fraudulent withdrawals, we did not receive any information that you compromised your banking details.

“The bank has in place an emergency USSD Code *996*911# for customers to dial and restrict their account from any mobile phone when they suspect their account has been compromised or lose their phones.

“If your claim of that the transactions were not authorized by you is true, it means that somebody had unrestricted access to your phone,” a part of the report read.

It was further revealed that Ms Agim was assigned a token on November 21, 2021, at 01:38:21 pm, and 4-digit PIN was created by her (as revealed in the attached material) and that she has been using it to consummate several mobile banking in the past.

Furthermore, the response letter signed by the Internal Control Unit of Zenith Bank noted it could only recover a sum of N800,500 out of the missing sum and advised her on the need to get a court order to repatriate N800,500 from Access Bank Plc.

Zenith Bank has advised her to report the matter to the Special Fraud Unit (SFU) of the Nigeria Police Force to help apprehend the culprits.