January 19,2023

Abidemi Usaen, a Kwara-based woman, has recounted how a fraudster who impersonated FairMoney staffers conned her out of N261,510, leaving her in enormous debt.

The young lady told FIJ an unknown number called her on January 11 to ask why she had not used the FairMoney app for some time and she told the caller her reason was the organisation’s high interest rate.

The caller then said he could help her out.

“He said FairMoney was upgrading its system and I would receive a message shortly from the app. The caller also told me to read out the message I was to receive,” Usaen told FIJ

While on the call, the caller asked me to call out the numbers in the message, and I did so at the drop of a hat. He even said ‘you must have received the message by now’. This got me confused.”

Usaen said she tried to log in to find out if there were any palpable changes in her account, only to discover she had been logged out of the FairMoney app.

She said she sent a mail to the FairMoney team, instructing them to block her account immediately after she noticed the anomaly.

“I also called FairMoney customer care to inform them about the issue, but the representative who took my call broke the news to me. She told me someone had borrowed N200,000 from my account,” she said.

“I told her I emailed the team earlier to block my account. FairMoney didn’t notify me I was about to get a loan. Later on, Fair Money asked me to change my account password. After I did, I saw a debt of N261,510.

I called FairMoney the following day, but it seemed as though they were less concerned. In the end, they said there was nothing they could do.”

Usaen said she could not understand why the process was seamless for the fraudster because she had found it hard on several trials to obtain a loan from the FairMoney app.

When FIJ called FairMoney on the issue, a call representative asked this reporter to tell the source to call them.

She further stated that her team had always warned clients against disclosing any of their details to anyone who claimed to be a member of their staff