A young Nigerian woman has recounted how a man she was in a talking stage with allegedly drained her bank account and wiped out her sister’s allowance after secretly using her ATM card details for unauthorized transactions.

She explained that the ordeal began when she met the man and they started talking frequently. He presented himself as struggling financially and repeatedly asked to use her ATM card to pay for food and other small expenses, assuring her that his manager would soon pay him and he would refund every naira.

Trusting him, she allowed him to use the card on several occasions. The promised refunds never came, but she initially dismissed it as a temporary delay. Unknown to her, he had allegedly taken things further by removing her ATM card from her bag at some point and carefully memorizing the card number, expiry date and CVV code on the back.

Her suspicions grew when debit alerts started appearing on her phone from locations she had never visited and for purchases she did not make. When she confronted him, he reportedly admitted to using the card once and again promised to pay her back. However, the withdrawals and online payments continued, slowly but steadily emptying her account.

The situation escalated when her sister’s allowance was paid into the same bank account. Her sister’s own ATM card had earlier been retained by an ATM, so the account was effectively accessible only through the lady’s card details. Soon after the money landed, thousands of naira began disappearing through multiple unauthorized transactions until only a small balance was left.

It was then she pieced everything together and realized the man had not only taken her card without permission but had also stored the details and was allegedly using them for online purchases and payments behind her back.

In her account, she described the emotional toll of discovering that someone she was just getting to know, and had tried to help, could betray her trust so deeply and leave both her and her sister financially stranded.

She ended her narration with a warning to others: never let anyone you are just getting to know handle your bank card unsupervised, and consider concealing or scratching off the CVV number at the back after saving it securely, to reduce the risk of card-not-present fraud and unauthorized online transactions.