Ever since N980,000 was debited without authorisation from the Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) account of Idumu Timothy (real name withheld), an Abuja resident, in September, he has been unable to recover it.
While GTBank has labelled the N980,000 deduction that occurred between August 2 and September 17 as a delayed debit, the customer is insisting that it was fraudulent and unauthorised.
When the first N430,000 vanished from his bank account in double transactions of N300,000 and N130,000 on August 2, Timothy thought it was a network issue.
Timothy told FIJ that he thought the bank would reverse the unknown transaction in a matter of days.
He was wrong.
Then on September 9, N200,000 was debited twice from his GTBank account. As if that was not enough, N150,000 also disappeared from his account on September 17.
As seen in the receipts and bank account statement made available to FIJ, the beneficiary of the N980,000 is Innovate1pay Ltd Abuja.
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The August 2 debits.
The September 9 debits.
The September 17 debit.
Checks by FIJ show that Innovate1Pay is the sister company of Payfixy, a major provider of digital and electronic payment processing services in Nigeria.
Payfixy, as seen on its website, is responsible for all payment solutions previously managed by Innovate1Pay.
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Timothy told FIJ that he is an agent with PayFixy, but he noted that there was no basis for any form of debit from his GTBank account given that his last transaction with them was on April 5.
“Payfixy is the primary company managing the payment platform and server of the Nigeria Immigration Service. As their agent, I help clients who want to procure (or make data correction) the Nigerian international passport make payment on the Payfixy platform since I have access to it,” Timothy said.
“I do transfer money to Payfixy account through their payment platform using my GTank ATM card details.”
Following a successful transfer, Payfixy would send him an instant email to confirm his credit alert on the platform.
However, Payfixy did not get any credit alerts on these dates between August and September.
“They also did not send any credit alert mail because I didn’t initiate any transfer, neither did I get an OTP to authenticate the transaction. Paxfixy said they’ve the same complaint from several agents using GTBank,” Timothy explained.
Meanwhile, when the first two transactions occurred on August 2, Timothy could not go to the bank because of the #EndBadGovernance protest at the time.
He also did not notify the bank through email or message.
“After the protest elapsed on August 10, I still didn’t go. I was thinking it was a mistake that would be reversed, maybe it was their epileptic network issues.
“It was on the second deduction on September 9, 2024, that I visited the bank immediately. I went to GTBank, Nigeria Immigration Service headquarters, Sauka, Abuja.
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“They had closed officially on that day. It was some minutes after 4 pm, but I was later allowed in based on my complaint to the security. I went straight to the customer service and complained. My ATM card was blocked by the customer service lady. According to her, it’ll make any further debit from my bank account impossible.”
Timothy was at the bank again on September 10. He said he had the intention of seeing the manager to make a formal complaint and also get a better picture of what was happening.
“I wasn’t allowed to see the manager, but was directed to the customer service supervisor who gave me a form to fill, with a promise to get back to me via mail in 48 hours,” he said.
When he did not get any response from the bank as promised, Timothy returned to that branch in Sauka on September 17. It was a few hours after leaving the bank that he got the fifth debit alert of N150,000.
“I didn’t go back despite the N150,000 debit, neither did I report it to GTBank again because it was glaring they would do nothing about it,” Timothy told FIJ.
When the Abuja resident sent an email to Payfixy on September 9 to report the five fraudulent transactions, the company told him that the debits did not come from them.
READ ALSO: Opay Customer’s Account Debited 3 Times Without Her Consent
The Abuja resident’s email to Payfixy.
Payfixy’s response
The company’s response reads:
Payfixy as a payment platform cannot and will never debit customer’s account without them initiating and paying for a transaction with their card on our platform. Note also that any card payment initiated by a customer on our platform will not go through without the necessary verification carried out by the bank through an OTP which the bank will send to the customer’s contact number for confirmation and approval. We advise that you visit your bank to lodge a formal complaint of unauthorised debit into your account to enable them to investigate and do the needful.
In response to an email Timothy sent to GTBank in September, the bank claimed that the five transactions were delayed debits.
The bank claimed that the N300,000 and N130,000 deducted on August 2 were delayed debit alerts for two transactions consummated on November 3 and 5, 2023.
GTBank’s response to him in September.
For the N200,000 debited twice on September 9, 2024, the bank said it was a delayed debit for the transaction consummated on August 17, while the N150,000 deducted on September 17 was for a March 22 transaction.
The bank then told Timothy that “the transaction was not debited on the initial date and the merchant comes for the value of the transactions”.
FIJ sent an email to GTBank on Monday, but the bank provided the same response it had previously given to Timothy, stating that the N980,000 was a delayed debit.
But then, Timothy insists that the N980,000 was fraudulently deducted from his account.
Given that Payfixy would always send him an automatic email to confirm each payment he makes on their platform, he got the proof of payment confirmation for two transactions of N300,000 and N130,000 he initiated on November 3 and 5, 2023, respectively.
He explained that receiving these two email notifications from Payfixy back in 2023 meant the company got his payment then.
The November 3 and 5, 2024 payment confirmation from Payfixy.
For the three other debits, there was payment confirmation from Payfixy. If, as stated by GTBank, he indeed initiated three transactions on March 22 and August 17, 2024, Payfixy would have sent him email confirmations. But there were none.
“I have all emailed Payfixy receipts from the beginning in my mailbox,” Timothy said.
“For the March 22 and August 17 transactions [referenced by GTBank], there’s no receipt from Paxfixy on that date to confirm the transaction.
“If I initiated the transactions, Payfixy will notify me with a receipt that they got the money.”
Meanwhile, FIJ sent an email to Payfixy on Tuesday, but no response had been received at press time. The company could not be reached on Thursday via the number on its website, as it was switched off.
The post Abuja Resident’s N980,000 Goes Missing Between Payfixy’s Innovate1Pay, GTB appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.