Point of sales – POS business operations for decongesting banks and making easy lodgments and withdrawals anywhere in Nigeria by bank customers have really made life easier for those patronizing them.
However, there are silent dangers inherently harming the patrons and agents of POS business operations, and many people are losing their hard earned money.
And it appears that Nigerian fraudsters are the most intelligent in devising ever new methods of stealing through POS operations.
A victim of POS fraud (name withheld), also an Opay POS business merchant, told ENigeria Newspaper that on July 3, 2021, someone withdrew N10, 000 from his account while his ATM was still in his pocket.
It happened on a Saturday, and he called customer care to block his account. Then on Monday, he ran to his bank and his ATM card was quickly changed.
While grieving over the loss of N10,000, a second illegal withdrawal of N4,000 on August 7 and a third one involving N100,000 on August 9, 2021, also occurred, he narrated to ENigeria Newspaper.
It is still baffling how the second and third frauds occurred while my new ATM card was revealed to no one except me, he narrated.
To unravel what happened, the victim ran to Opay, there he was told that the name, address, and phone number of the fraudulent Opay merchant will be revealed to him if he could write to the Country Manager/CEO accompanied with a police and bank business reports.
The distraught victim took everything to Opay office, Alexander House, Alausa since August.
More than two months after the fraud, Opay has refused to attend to the issue.
And to make it easier the fraud victim only asked Opay to reveal the fraud operator and leave the financial burden of police and court interventions to him.
Yet Opay refused to respond until the man went there again on Thursday, October 21, 2021.
Following the frustrations he encountered, he proceeded to the anti-fraud unit which also houses the office of the Opay MD/Country Manager.
One Adedayo at the head table of the office, said they did not respond to the man’s letter because they basically have no business with bank fraud victims, except with their banks. “This is Central Bank’s directive.”
Adedayo maintained: “Go back to your bank and make them to write to Opay. And we will respond accordingly.”
“Are you assuring me that Opay will ultimately reveal terminal where my money was withdrawn thrice?” the aggrieved victim asked.
“Yes,” Adedayo responded, “we do not shield people perpetrating frauds with Opay POS machines.”
As an Opay POS business merchant, the victim told ENigeria Newspaper about some fraudulent moves he had caught many fraudsters making at his shop.
“For more than one year, I had been dealing with Opay, many fraudsters had tried to camera my POS machine pin, without success. Many giraffed and we put our pin only when we know nobody is watching.
“Some try to photograph customers’ last four digits on the ATM cards and if they succeeded it would be fool-hardy to also allow the individual to photograph the three digits at the back of the ATM card,” he said.
He also revealed that they once saw a man pick transaction details print-out dropped on the ground after a customer withdrew more than N100,000.
Sensing danger in that new development, the defrauded Opay POS business merchant accosted the fellow, wrestled the print-out from his hand.
“After this incident, we now advise customers to shred the transaction receipts immediately, and when some are foolishly reckless, we help them to shred the papers.
“Internet fraudsters are really on rampage against POS business merchants and their customers.
“I know two women in Lagos who packed up their POS businesses because people swept their bank accounts clean. They lost hundreds of thousands of naira and got frustrated,” he said.
Keeping one’s phone safe is another measure against fraudsters, he divulged.
“Also, someone told me to tell my customers to be deleting their alerts after bank or POS business or personal transactions from their phones and emails,” he concluded. (E-Nigeria)
