"Bank Fraud!!! What I Did And How I Got My Money Back"

Dec 16th, 2017. A day I can NEVER forget hurriedly in my life. Got to shoprite Surulere, bought something's and made payment via POS. I didn't get SMS transaction Alert as my phone was stolen two days before.

Drove down to Lawanson (same place my phone was stolen) to make some transaction and found out that some money was missing from my account, . I immediately went beside my car, told my coworkers with me about the info, asked d amount and I calculated and gave them d figure, Three Hundred and Ninety Nine thousand, Four hundred and sixty Naira was missing (399,460).

I called my bank through the Number written on the back of the ATM card and they verified the transaction, I was a Victim of Sim card BVN fraud, first ever of Its kind in Nigeria .

Then I told them to Freeze the account with immediate effect.

I realise many people had also one time or the other gone through this kind of experience but they never got their money back as they didn't know the process to take on how to get their money back from Fraud that occurred on their account either via ATM, Online or any other platform

Here is what I did to get my money back as I it was a transaction I didn't authorised


1. I didn't keep quiet, I told a lot of people about the update. I wasn't ashame, I even posted on my timeline on Facebook. I wasn't looking for pity but to notify people about the new fraud in town and also seek for advice. I knew 90% of people won't even care as they will even laugh but that 10% of people that cared will give me solution and truly it worked.
One of the guys I told gave me the option that started the solution and that option was to write a letter to Central Bank of Nigeria, Lagos office

2. I immediately sent a mail to my bank, telling them about the debit that occurred on my account and it wasn't from me. The bank replied telling me they will investigate, I had to put a lot of pressure on them because these bank people can be very funny, they will tell you they are working on it but that's a lie

3. I wrote a petition/Complain to the "Banking Supervision Department" and "Customer Protection Department" of Central bank of Nigeria, Lagos Branch. The office is at the 11th floor of the building. Most of the workers don't know, some told me 8th floor, some said 5th floor. I had to walk that building up and down more than 6times that day before I could get the right office cos the access cards for the floors are different and I have to come down to take new access card for the different floor



Ps- make sure a copy with you is acknowledged, also provide your Email address and Phone number on the letter as they will reach you through the platform provided and tell you to negotiate with your bank and if no progress after 30 working days then write them again via the e-mail they used in communicating with you. I will provide screen shot of the mail they sent but I am trying as much as possible not to mention the bank. I never knew many Organisation in Nigeria work if I had not gone through it.

I was actually told at CBN that it will take time but I will surely get my money back that the CBN mandated banks to known your Customer (KYC) so since the money was transferred to Access bank then Access bank need to produce their customer

4. I wrote an official letter also to my branch bank Manager, informing him about the fraud on the account and telling him how it has really affected me. I Also made sure that a copy of the letter was acknowledged.

I knew it wasn't going to be an easy fight as the bank would want to put the blame on me but I was ready for them.

I was always sending them mail, calls via the telephones at any bank branch. I gave them heat and after 30 working days I sent a mail back to CBN telling them the bank is frustrating me and they are yet to refund my money and I didn't want to go to court because the matter was before the APEX bank. I didn't receive any reply from them

I went to a branch and also shouted and told them I want to see the branch manager which I saw her and also made my complain and she decided to also send a mail to the fraud unit.

Sorry to say, I received a call from the fraud unit after I wrote a petition to CBN and CBN queried them telling me how my money was transferred and giving me the account number and bank the money was transferred to, they also gave me the address of the person that owns the account but I refused to follow up as I told them that wasn't my work that they should do it.

Lastly, I called them from the bank and told. Them that was the last time I was going to talk to them in the issue that I will get a lawyer, told the Lady that picked the call to tell the management about my development, I actually got a lawyer but before the lawyer could write, I received my money back on Thursday hot afternoon via an alert...

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