Loveth Mogaji (pseudonym), a resident of Plateau State, has narrated how a fraudster disguised as a customer care representative of Alat by Wema, Wema Bank’s digital banking platform, stole her N102,000.
Mogaji told FIJ that before the fraudster stole her money, she had contacted Alat to confirm if the number that had chatted with her on WhatsApp was theirs, but she received no response.
She said she had transferred N500,000 from her Alat account on January 15 to her OPay account, but the transaction failed and the bank did not reverse the money. After a while, she complained on X about the issue and tagged Alat.
Shortly after that public complaint, a WhatsApp number sent her a message claiming to be an Alat customer care representative. Mogaji said she did not immediately respond to the person but concluded it was Alat because she had tagged them in her post on X.
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After a while, Alat’s official X handle sent a message to Mogaji to inquire if the issue she had raised had been resolved, but she told them it had not. She said she also sent a screenshot of her chats with the person who claimed to be from Alat but still got no response.
The source’s chat with Alat By Wema before she lost her money.
“I was shocked that two entities identifying as Alat by Wema were chatting with me. So, I asked their X account if the number chatting with me was theirs, but I didn’t get a response. I asked if the number was associated with Wema, but I still got no response,” Mogaji told FIJ.
“The person chatting with me on WhatsApp kept asking if the issue had been resolved. When the official account did not respond, I concluded that the bank was the one chatting with me. After all, they were messaging me, and I didn’t give them my number.”
She said the operator of the WhatsApp number sent her a link, saying it was a self-service portal and that following it would resolve her issues.
“I sent that link to Alat by Wema on X to ask if it was associated with them, but they didn’t respond. I did this because I didn’t want to fall victim to fraudsters, but they still didn’t respond. Then the WhatsApp person asked if it had been fixed again,” Mogaji said.
“At that point, I decided to try it out. Once I put my email address and password into the portal, which looked like Alat by Wema’s login portal, I was logged out of my account. The next thing I saw was a debit of N102,000.
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“I went back to WhatsApp to ask why I was debited, but they didn’t respond. I realised it was a scammer after that. He also deleted the link he had sent me. After that time, I got a message from Alat By Wema on X.”
Mogaji said Alat apologised for their 10-minute delay after she had lost her money. Afterwards, they sent her their contact numbers but ignored her complaints.
FIJ emailed Alat for comments on Tuesday but they had not responded at press time.
FIJ has written several reports on how fraudsters lie in wait to defraud people who submit banking complaints online. FIJ has also found that the fraudsters have a simple modus operandi: they send a link to customers on WhatsApp and urge them to click on it. Once the customers do, their money vanishes and the fraudsters delete the links.
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