Cases of ATM frauds have continued to inflict pains on bank customers, and the problem has remained unabated despite efforts by government anti-graft agencies to checkmate the malady. Not too long ago, a Lagos High Court indicted a bank of unlawful withdrawal from a customer’s account, through ATM, and was ordered to refund. Senior Correspondent, JUDE KENNETH, reports on the petition by a victim of ATM frauds.
According to Fagbuyiro, who maintains a current account with Access Bank, he had attempted to withdraw funds from his account using the ATM at the Bourdillion branch of Zenith Bank in Ikoyi. But the ATM card got trapped in the machine and could not be retrieved immediately. While trying to retrieve the card, several funds were illegally withdrawn from his account.
The petition signed by his lawyer stated that the card got trapped about 4:14pm on September 11, 2014, and all efforts to retrieve it were futile.
Part of the petition reads: “Consequent upon the above fact, our client reported to the security officers who in turn called one Mr. Samuel, a staff of your bank who was inside the banking hall at the material time, being that banking activities for that day had ended and customers were not allowed inside.
“However, Samuel did not respond either by asking our client to wait behind to get his ATM card or to come inside the banking hall to have the complaint sorted out. Thus our client left the bank premises, hoping to come back the next day and get his ATM card back.
“But to our client’s greatest shock and consternation, he started receiving withdrawal alerts on the same account on his mobile phone at 11.38pm of September 11 and 12.05am of September 12, 2014. Our client’s account that held N193,890 had been completely withdrawn to N948.98K.”
He added that when Fagbuyiro rushed to the branch of Zenith Bank on September 12 to lay complaint about what had happened, he was told that the bank would not do anything on it because he does not maintain an account with them.
The lawyer, who was irritated by the response given to his client by the bank, said it was obvious that Zenith Bank and its officers acted in breach of their duty of care to his client who, though does not maintain an account with the bank, is protected by law from being negligently exposed to circumstance that would cause him injury.
“The pertinent questions that need to be asked are: How come our client’s ATM card that was trapped in your bank’s ATM machine was used to make the fraudulent withdrawals? How did the fraudster gain access to our client’s ATM card that was trapped in your bank’s ATM machine?
“All these questions strongly connect Zenith Bank and its officers to the incident and none else can explain it all,” the lawyer stressed.
The lawyer is, therefore, urging the bank to refund the alleged stolen funds and pay reasonable compensation, failure of which further necessary actions would be taken against it.
When contacted, the Media Department of Zenith Bank, after investigation, maintained that there was nothing the bank could do on the circumstance due to the fact that the affected account belonged to another bank.