The Man From “UBA”
It's been a very busy week here in Lagos as the International Trade Fair begins to gear towards the end.
Some years ago, I was at United Bank for Africa to open an account. That was going to be my second bank account and to my disappointment, they told me I will need at least NGN25,000 before I can open an account and that the least I can have in the account is NGN25,000. I left and would later have a Diamond Bank marketer open an account for me with Zero Balance.
Fast forward to November 2021. This woman walked up to me here in Lagos and asked if I have an account with UBA. Long story cut short, she opened an account with a Zero balance, I funded it and got my debit card that same day. An Igbo adage says "ebe onye oso ruru, onye ije ga eru" which means "there is no rush in life." I didn't open a UBA account because I needed it badly, it was because I wanted another account for a certain purpose. Also, it was convenient.
That's not the main reason why I am sharing this story.
A day after I had opened the new account and gotten my debit card, I got a call from a supposed UBA customer care agent. He sounded very proficient.
"Good morning Mr Onyedika. Once again, congratulations and thank you for choosing UBA. We do this routine call to inform our new customers about the need to protect their information against scammers. Ensure that you do not give anyone sensitive information concerning your account" he said
I felt a bit relaxed, I concluded it was just the usual security briefings that we have already gotten used to. I kept being attentive with some occasional "okay" to make him know that I am on the phone with him. He kept going
"Before I continue, kindly confirm if this is your account number 2222xxxxxxx" he called out the account number. It was correct and I affirmed. He continued "kindly confirm if you tried making a payment or withdrawal with your ATM card and it wasn't successful"
Candidly, I had tried renewing a subscription using thr new debit card and the transaction wasn't successful. I affirmed and he continued
"I am sorry about that Sir. This is exactly the reason why I called. Kindly give me some minutes while I run a check on your account" I could hear him work on his keyboard and the ambience sounded like a banking hall. I was relaxed and thrilled at the same time on how UBA could notice errors on the customer end without the customer even filing a report. I had to check again to be sure that I wasn't speaking with a robot. After a while, his voice was back "Okay Sir. When you got your card yesterday, a code was sent to you for the card activation"
"Yes" I affirmed "and I changed the code as I was told" I added
"Okay, Sir. Kindly disregard that code that was sent to you yesterday as we will be resetting your card so that you can be able to make transactions with it. What this means is that you'll be getting a new code that you'll use. When I call out this code for you, kindly write it down and use any ATM of your choice to change the code"
"Alright" I responded as he continued
"The code is 8235. I repeat, the code is 8235. Remember Sir that for the safety of your account, do not share your card details with anyone as it will make your account vulnerable to scammers"
"Alright," I said. I was going to get my card, go to one of the closest ATM stand and so as he said. Then he went on
"One more thing Sir. To validate the process, kindly call out the code you changed to yesterday"
"You mean I should call out the new pin of the card?" I asked. I was getting the whole picture now
"Not exactly Sir. As I said, the card has been reset and your default code is the one I called out to you. When you change the code to your preferred pin, your card will start working. But I'll need to know the code you changed to yesterday. This will help us in validating your card, Sir." He sounded calm and persuasive but he can only tell that to a naive fellow.
"That won't be a problem," I said "I am very close to where I opened this account. I think it's better I just walk up there and they help me sort out all of this"
"That is fine too Sir but not necessarily because we can validate it over the phone. I'll transfer you now to my manager, you can speak with him" he said, I could sense some kind of disinclination in his voice.
"Listen, Mr Man, I can't give my sensitive details to anybody and not even your manager or the CBN governor. I'll go to the UBA branch close to me to sort out the card issue I said" he hissed and hung up.
I wasn't intending to go to the bank to verify anything, I knew it was a scam but what is startling to me is how he got my account information, how he knew the date and time I opened the account and how he even knew I had a failed transaction. It can't be a guess work especially for an account that wasn't even up to 24hours it was opened.
Could it be that there is a staff of United Bank for Africa who releases this information or could it be that someone else has access through a backdoor to United Bank for Africa's database? This is a question I have no one to ask.
Stay woke... These guys upgrade on daily basis.
