The management of Equity Bank Uganda has said it is investigating allegations that their customer lost Shs10m from the financial institution in a video that has gone viral.
According to the video shared on social media, a bank customer claims that the bank “stole” his money and that he is being tossed around without any much assistance. In the video, which he took at the bank’s head office in Kampala, the complainant claims that the people he was given to assist him are dodging him.
But Equity Bank in a statement said they are supporting the customer.
“Our attention has been drawn to messages circulating on social media in relation to an alleged fraudulent activity on the account of one of our customers amounting to Ushs10 Million,” the bank said.
“Whereas we are bound by the client confidentiality rule and therefore cannot disclose customer interactions in the media, we wish to reiterate our message to all our customers that in the event of loss of their phone, they should immediately report to the bank through our 24/7 customer helpline 0312 327000.
We are engaging and supporting the affected customer as well as working with the relevant authorities to resolve this matter as quickly as possible,” they added.
However, the statement seems not to have pleased many members of the public, who accuse the bank of not doing enough to stem what they call fraud at the financial institution.
“Watching that Equity Bank video, I could feel that man’s pain bambi. Recently when I was opening up an account with them, a similar incident happened and they just sent the client away in a confusing manner. People really work hard for their money, y’all need to stop this robbery,” Linda Evelyn Pretty tweeted.
Rose Naminyo tweeted: “Equity Bank let’s you access your money anywhere, anytime through agents, I guess it’s why so many fraudsters are manipulating the system. May they be identified and penalized.”
Dr Kool tweeted: “Equity bank is something else ….. I made a transfer on a public holiday the money was deducted but didn’t reach the recipient… they tossed me around for a month …without any clear solution… my ka 200k.”
In February 2023, a series of customers came out to accuse Equity Bank Uganda of fraudulently authorizing withdrawals from their accounts without their authorization.
One of them was Rose Ahebwa, who said she opened up an account with the bank in the second week of December, 2022 and deposited shs47 million.
She says that a few days later, the customer service of the bank called to advise her to subscribe to a number of products including mobile banking but she rejected before the call hang up.
“A few hours later, I discovered via the teller where I had gone to make a transaction that my account had a balance of only shs27,000,” Ahebwa said.
Another bank client, Maxwell Lawrence Muyonjo has also admitted to having fallen victim to the fraud when he was robbed of shs30.6 million through mobile banking on December, 16.
“I lost my mobile phone in the night and the next day on December,17, someone accessed my mobile banking by managing to reset my mobile banking PIN and withdrawing or transferring up to shs30.6 million out of the account and to top it off, applying for a shs500,00 instant loan. I reported the issue to Equity bank and also logged a case with Central Police Station,” Muyonjo narrated.
He says that on January, 19, 2023, he received response from Equity Bank detailing how the fraud happened but says he was not convinced by the explanation.
“The feedback shared states that the thieves reset my mobile banking PIN and received OTP since they had my sim card. However, they completed the second level of authentication using my VISA Card. But the VISA Card was in my possession and still is till to date. They cannot explain how they obtained my card details,” he said.
In a statement, Equity Bank said investigations into the circumstances under which these incidents happened were ongoing.
The bank however urged customers to remain alert by avoiding sharing details of the personal identification numbers(PIN) and reporting any suspicious activity on their accounts.