Adeyiga Oyenike Taiwo, a Lagos-based woman, has narrated how she lost over N150,000 to several unauthorised transactions on her Ecobank account.

She told FIJ that when she complained to the bank about an initial deduction, the money was refunded in part but weeks later, the bank emptied her account and left her with a negative account balance of -N60,578.22.

“It all started on March 11, when my son sent me N200,000. I usually call him to inform him after I have received money, which I did. I checked my account balance, and I saw over N300,000,” Adeyiga told FIJ.

The following day, she checked her account balance again and was shocked.

“I saw about N200,000 as my account balance, which was absurd because I did not make any transactions. My account was short of over N100,000. Also, I did not receive debit alerts for these deductions,” she said.

Jide Adeyiga, her son, told FIJ that these deductions totaled N145,598.

Unwilling to let it slide, she went to an Ecobank branch in search of answers. She told FIJ that while at the bank, she received two debit alerts of N12,100 each.

“I lodged the complaints, and they asked me to give them some time to reverse it. On March 19, they only reversed N12,100 five different times, making a total of N60,500, so I went back to complain. I was told the staff who attended to me failed to lodge complaints for other deductions. Then they refunded the balance on April 4.”

Adeyiga’s mind was at peace when she saw that the bank had refunded her, but this peace was short-lived, as she started getting multiple debit alerts four days later.

“She began to move some of her money out of the account after she was refunded, but the bank still went ahead to deduct what she had left in her account and even more of it,” said Jide.

This time, N156,670 was deducted by her bank, and the amount exceeded her account balance, according to Jide.

“I went back to the bank, but they were giving flimsy excuses and asking for my ATM card. I have no one living with me, and there’s no way someone can pick up my card to make transactions behind me,” the woman said.

In Adeyiga’s statement of account for that period, FIJ saw that some of the deductions were tagged “POS Purchases”. FIJ also asked her if she patronised POS agents often, and she said no.

“The bank is using PoS as an excuse. I have never patronised PoS agents. I go to the bank to withdraw whenever I need cash. I could not sleep properly because I lost over N150,000 to this issue,” Adeyiga told FIJ.

FIJ emailed Ecobank on Friday, but they had not responded at press time.