I went to my office on 23rd June, 2020 as usual. Doing my normal job, I never expected this to happen.
My brother, Christopher and his fiancée came looking for me. When I came out I saw them holding a bank form. He said he went to withdraw money from his account. His May salary was paid 9th June, 2020. Thus, he still had enough money, considering the fact that he's being prudent with spending because of the difficulty we are facing as we struggle to come out from the scourge of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to him, he discovered that there's no money in his account, to his surprise. Going to ask how come, the bank gave him a form to fill for his statement of account to be printed out. I quickly collected his phone to check for possible debit alert as proof he has finished his money, but there was no such evidence. I would have followed him back to bank but by that time the bank had closed for business.
On 24th June, 2020, we went back together. I had to fill another form to get the statement of account. I was shocked by what I saw on the statement.
We discovered that someone had used his phone to transfer money up to three times without his knowledge, using USSD code. The culprit made sure he deleted the alerts after the transactions. The statement of account doesn't show the name on the account the money was sent to. And Christopher said he never transferred money to anyone and has not given anyone his phone to transfer money, though people collect his phone to make calls.
I had to go back to the bank to ask for possible tracing of the account the money was sent to. The customers care lady said she has to send message to the receiving bank for such details, since it doesn't appear on the statement.
The message was sent and the reply hasn't come yet. We are waiting.
But I'm not happy that my brother could be that careless. The transactions were made 13/6/2020, 15/6/2020 and 19/6/2020 and he could only find out there's no money left in his account on 23rd. I know he doesn't have formal education but there are people in his shoes that are still careful.
The world is a wicked place. Now he has nothing left to survive with and personally I don't have to give him. I'm also trying to survive because I got married February this year immediately before lockdown started by March.
Please guys, be careful, in fact beware of the next person. Friends can turn monsters anytime, especially when money is involved.
Stay tuned for more update on this.
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