Kolawole Akeem, a Lagos resident, has been wondering why Paripesa, an online sports betting platform, continues to withhold his N1.2 million for a month despite his fulfilling all verification requests.
Akeem told FIJ that, on the company’s security team’s request, he has submitted his National Identification Number (NIN) and utility bill, and fulfilled other requests, but this has led to inconsistent messages from the various communication channels of the online platform.
He said that the problem with Paripesa started at a mild rate in the first week of September after Paripesa limited his daily withdrawal limit from an amount he had never exhausted to N100,000 daily. At the time, he had N800,000 in his wallet, so he withdrew N100,000 daily until he couldn’t.
Akeem said he tried to make a withdrawal on September 8, but it was declined. That same day, he emailed Paripesa customer care, but what followed was a series of what he described as torture.
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“They asked me to send my identity card in PDF form and my digital NIN, which I did. After that, they asked me to do a screenrecord, showing my NIMC details on the NIMC app. I thought that was all, but they asked me to take a selfie holding my NIN with my face and with a message on a tablet or computer in the background showing my chats with them. It was hard to do this because they said it must be clear,” Akeem told FIJ.
Akeem said after all of this, Paripesa asked him if he knew a man named James, to which he responded in the negative. Afterwards, Paripesa asked him to send proof of payment of utility bills for the last three months, which he did.
He said Paripesa acknowledged the receipts and asked him to send a copy of his international passport. Since he has no international passport, he told Paripesa to use his NIN. This was on September 17. They then asked him to take a selfie and write a code they sent to him, which he did. That evening, they mailed, saying they had decided to block his account.
According to Akeem, Paripesa claimed he violated their rules but failed to cite the rules he had violated. He said Paripesa highlighted three rules but could not pin any violation on him. He then asked them to recheck his details to verify their claims in the event they believed he had multiple accounts with them.
The source’s public call-out on X
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“I messaged their customer care on X and Telegram. They said I could get my funds if I completed their verification. This left me surprised because their platforms were giving different responses. I appealed to them to go back and check my profile,” Akeem explained.
“If I had lost, they would have received my money, but because I have been winning, they have suddenly found fault. I messaged again on X, and they said they had already responded. They would not respond until I dragged them on X. After I did, they reached out, saying I should be patient. Afterwards, they blocked me on X with their official account.
“I contacted their customer care to find out where their office is, but they said they had no physical office. If they claim I was guilty, let them tell me what I was guilty of. If I violated their terms and conditions, why did they put me under that stress instead of taking action? It makes no sense. Before they locked me out of my account, I had over N1.2 million there. Now, I want my money back.”
FIJ contacted Paripesa for its side of the matter, but it asked that Akeem contact them from the email address attached to his account.
The post Paripesa Blocks Verified User’s Account, Withholds His N1.2m appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.