Published 11th Nov, 2021

By Emmanuel Uti

Babalola Ebenezer, a worker with the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), has accused Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) and SportyPay of making an unauthorised deduction of N300,000 from his account.

On October 15, Ebenezer received a text message from GTB, notifying him that his account had been debited N300,000.

Immediately Ebenezer received the text, he placed a phone call to the account officer of the GTB branch in Dugbe, Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, to inform him of what had happened. According to him, the account officer said he had written to SportyPay to stop the transaction.

On October 18, Ebenezer went to the bank to fill a dispute form. He told FIJ that the official who attended to him requested some time to resolve the matter. After waiting for days, he informed the police, and they asked the staff of the Dugbe branch of GTB where the money went.

“I also asked them why it was taking so long to resolve the issue, but no one answered. I told them I would not want them to tell me SportPay had taken my money because the alert already said that,” he told FIJ.

“This Saturday, a lady from GTB called me to explain that the N300,000 had since been taken by SportyPay. I expected positive news. Now, I am devastated.”

FIJ had reported three cases of GTB users losing their money to SportyPay. Findings revealed that SportyPay is neither a sports betting platform nor a financial platform.

Hasan Baruwa, a SportyPay user lost N500,000 in the same manner. Although GTB’s response was negative initially, it refunded him after FIJ’s report.

Findings revealed that SportyPay has no recognised social media handle and website. Sportypay.ng, for instance, redirects internet users to a porn website. A search on Twitter revealed testimonies of people whose accounts have also been debited by the platform.

FIJ sent a message to GTB via their complaints email, but it has not been responded to.

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