There had been stories of unauthorized withdrawals from accounts of bank customers who had their bank cards either stolen or lost. Some had rushed to the nearest branches of their respective banks to seek help while getting notifications on their phones that their bank accounts are being debited for transactions they do not initiate or had knowledge of.
Some other victims of bank account fraudsters are simply helpless and they just accept their fate and move on with their lives have heard gory stories of similar victims in the past in which they could not get help from anywhere including their banks.
I was with an old friend over the weekend and I was not surprised when he narrated his own experience in the hands of these unscrupulous fraudsters who took a large sum of money from his account on a particular Sunday and all efforts at recovering the money from his bank was fruitless as he was tossed about for weeks without success. He even went as far as going to the bank’s head office to lay complain without success. My friend simply refused to take another ATM card with any bank in Nigeria and switch to the traditional bricks and mortar banking. No one can convince him now to use any alternative banking channels again.
But, really to be fair to banks in Nigeria, most of these unauthorized debits and fraudulent withdrawals were as a result of careless handling of banking instruments by bank customers. Again because the deed would have been done before the bank get notified of the fraud, the bank can only do very little after the funds has been withdrawn from the customers account. It is even worse if the alleged fraud was not a transfer to another bank account but cash withdrawal from a PoS machine or online transaction because the bank could trace transfers and the account holder of the beneficiary/ies but, will not be able to trace details of online transactions and PoS cash withdrawal.
Read, What makes you a responsible bank customer to have some understanding on protecting your banking instruments.
Consciously protecting your banking instrument is perhaps the best way to avoid the embarrassment that comes with the discomfort of loosing your money to fraudsters. If you can master the confidence of not disclosing your bank detail to anyone offline or online and the deliberate intention of keeping your hardware banking instruments such as bank card, cheque book, token and others safe away from any other person other than yourself. That is the moment you will be safe from online fraudsters.
Read also How BVN can be used to steal money from your bank account to have a better understanding of how to keep you bank account safe from fraudulent individuals that may be masquerading as genuine people.
Inspite of having the understanding of how to protect you bank account from unauthorized access, situation may arise that succumbed you to some negligence and your quard may be let loose. This may make you expose yourself to fraudulent individuals. If you find yourself in such situation. Here are the list of bank codes you can use to block your bank accounts immediately without the need to run around looking for help in bank branches.
- Access Bank – Call +234 1 2802500 or *902*911# to block Bank Account.
- Citibank Nigeria – Call +234 1 279 8400 or +234 1 463 8400
- EcoBank -;Text STOP ATM your account Number to 234 806326226 and follow the prompt
- FCMB – Call + 234 1 2798800
- Fidelity Bank – Dial *770*911# to block card and *770*account number # to block account and follow the prompt
- First Bank – Daily *894*911# to block your bank account or call FirstContact +234 708 062 5000 or +234 1448 5500 follow the prompt.
- Globus Bank – Call 234 1-2259000, 234 1-2259001
- GT Bank – Dial *73751*10# and follow the prompt
- Heritage Bank – Dial *745*11# and follow the prompt or call +234 1 236 9000, +234 1 630 9000,
- Keystone Bank – Dial *7111*911# or Call 234 7002000300055
- Polaris – Call +234 1 270850 or Dial *833*13#
- Providus Bank – Call +234 70077684387 or 234 01 2367720
- Stanbic IBTC Bank – Dial *909# and select my bank and select service request then select block card
- Standard Chartered – Call +234 270 4611 -4, +234 800 123 5000 on your Mobile App. Go to Service Request, Card Management, Block and Replace Card.
- Sterling Bank – Call 070078378464 or *822*911# to block your account.
- SunTrust Bank – Call +234 908 733 1440
- Taj Bank – Dial *898# and select the number 7 option
- Titan Trust Bank – Dial *922*911# or call 234 1 2265129, 234 1 2265100, 07000200200
- UBA – Dial *919*10# to block your Bank Account and *919*9# to freeze your bank account.
- Union Bank – To block Debit Card *826*21#, To block Bank Account*826*6#, To block Bank Account via a third party phone number*827*6*own number #, To disable USSD *826*40#
- Wema Bank – Call 08039003700
- Zenith Bank- *966*911# and follow the prompt
Please note that while some banks have a way of allowing you to block your bank account directly from phone number that are different from the phone number registered on your account, you will have to make calls for others if your card is stolen.
