ALAT: Customers allege data misuse, illegal banking practice by Wema Bank, demand probe
Some clients of Wema Bank have accused the financial institution of conducting illegal banking practices in Nigeria.
They said they learned that the bank and its agents were allegedly opening unauthorized accounts for customers who had information or data with the bank.
The financial institution, led by Ademola Adebise, is reportedly opening accounts for some Nigerians without their knowledge or consent to celebrate their 5th anniversary on its digital banking platform, ALAT.
While the actual number of unauthorized accounts opened by unsuspecting Nigerians is unknown, Wema Bank aimed to achieve “one million accounts a day”, according to an email seen by Ripples Nigeria.
Wema Bank claimed in a mail seen by the platform that unauthorized accounts were opened for certain individuals to “celebrate with us” while they were not further informed or approved to create the accounts .
This illegal banking practice is similar to that of the United States bank Wells Fargo, which was accused of opening 1.5 million accounts without authorization, applying for more than 565,000 credit cards, allegedly without the consent of customers.
About 5,300 employees of Wells Fargo were fired for opening illegal accounts, and the company was fined $185 million by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in the United States.
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Unauthorized Wells Fargo accounts were only uncovered by affected individuals when the accounts began collecting loans from bank charges on unsuspecting individuals.
Just as sacked Wells Fargo employees were said to have been involved in fraudulently opening bogus accounts to defeat targets, vendors and marketers at Wema Bank used the same strategy to achieve the lender’s anniversary goal. may be used.
Vema is expected to take the financial burden off unsuspecting individuals through bank account maintenance costs, of which the lender generated approximately N2.10 million last year, surpassing 2020’s N1.24 million.
Affected Nigerians smell abuse inside
Recently, Adebayo Tayo, a mental health advocate, took to his Twitter account to publicly accuse Vema Bank of opening an account in his name without permission.
Tayo laments that he never knew he had a new Wema bank account until his mother contacted him, as he received an alert that was intended for him – shockingly, how could he manage to access such an account. There is a boss he is unaware of, and his mother receives an alert.
He said, “I am concerned about how my information was used by Vema Bank and I need a detailed explanation about the account, including every transaction, before anyone can use my details in an account.” for robbing money or taking ransom,” he said.
After investigating Tayo’s claim, Ripples Nigeria found that he was not the only one whose identity was used by the financial institution to open accounts on its digital banking platform, ALAT, without the knowledge or consent of individuals.
Another affected is Nigerian Oyenike Ojo, whose name was used to open the account. However, when money was sent to the account, the alert details showed another name, Olusei Bamgoi, as the account owner – meaning that two different names have been used to open an account.
Ojo’s husband told Ripples Nigeria that there was something unclear about the account, “What I said is that the current name on the account number in my screenshot is not my wife’s name. If you look at that screenshot, my wife’s name is Account was opened with name and new account number.
“He also got a credit alert notification via SMS with the new account number. This shows that his details were used to open that account. However I tried to transfer to that account this morning when I read the news only to see that the account name is Olusei Bamboy and not Oynik Ojo (which is my wife’s name). There is definitely something wrong”, he explained to Ripples Nigeria.
Ojo said his wife has an account with Vema Bank that she hasn’t used for nearly seven years, and the new account created in her name does not have the same number with her old account.
He insisted that unauthorized accounts opened “definitely have inside work.”, he said, “customer details are tampered with and they are being used to open new accounts. Whether opened by marketers For meeting the number of accounts target, or for money laundering, I can’t tell.
Ojo called for an investigation into the illegal accounts opened by Wema Bank, adding that the situation is doubtful, “How Oyenike Ojo’s savings account was opened without his permission, now Olusei Bamboy’s account has definitely become suspicious. ” Ojo expressed his concern.
Abimbola Fkoyejo, another name used for unauthorized account opening, revealed that he was still thinking about his unused account on ALAT when he saw a message informing him that there was an account in his name. Account has been opened.
The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) are yet to respond to inquiries from Ripples Nigeria.
Wema Bank also did not immediately respond to our inquiries in this matter.
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