A new fraud alert on how criminally minded staff of some banks release account holders’ details to hackers and fraudsters to bleed off unsuspecting customers’ has been exposed.
A victim recently gave a short story of his experience to Business Hilights saying “I got a call at about 11:55am this morning from one Ugba Gaius (may not be real names) with this phone number 09036650904. To my surprise, he mentioned my full name claiming to be calling from a bank (name with held).
“He told me that I have two dates of birth on my account in the bank. I said I only use one date of birth. He said why he called is that my ATM card is expiring in October and that due to the two birth dates; they cannot process my ATM card.
The victim agreed that “Truly my ATM card expires in October this year and with this am being thrilled to believe him”.
“However, where the fraudster exposed his 419 skill is when he asked me to give him my ATM card number, so he can print the new card.
“I wanted to play along by faking the first four digits in my ATM card number, but he was serious in correcting me that I was wrong which goes to show that there is an insider angle to the planned fraud either from my bank or the card producer.
“After trying to confuse him with wrong card number, I called him a thief and wanted to cut off the call, but he hurriedly made a comment that shocked me, saying “Why can’t I take your money when after all my education, there is no job and expectations are high on me from family and relatives.
“I told him to go and look for a job and stop defrauding people. He replied, asking me to find me one for him so that he can stop defrauding people.
“He warned me that if I cannot find one for him, I should just go and leave him alone. Man must eat. He dropped the call and never called again.
Some banks’ corporate affairs chiefs who barred their minds with our correspondent, denied having criminals within their systems and noted that hackers can go any length in sourcing details of their victims.
They concurred that no bank will call any of its customers to ask for any number on his or her ATM card and warned customers to always keep their cards safe and notify their banks immediately it gets into the wrong hand.
ATM fraudsters who call their victims on phone has been on the rise in recent times and there had been no serious attempt to discourage them.
