My Money Mistake is a weekly PiggyVest series that explores the worst money mistakes real Nigerians have made, and the lessons they learnt from it.

For this week’s episode of My Money Mistake, we spoke to a 22-year-old student who gave her banking details to a scam caller. She tells us about how she was scammed and what she learnt from it. 

Could you tell me about your money mistake?

I received a call from someone claiming to be from my bank. It was around the same time I had reached out to complain about some issues I was experiencing. We had a conversation and he asked for some of my banking details. I sent it to him. After that, he requested my OTP. 

Damn!

I sent the person the OTP, and after a while, I received a debit alert for everything in my account.

Did you suspect anything during your interaction?

Not at all. I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to send my OTP.

Was that when you suspected you had made a mistake?

Not exactly. He’d assured me they would return the money, and I would get a credit alert, so I was a little surprised when I got the debit alert. It was when I called him back and his number wasn’t going through that I knew I had been scammed. 

What did you do afterwards?

I went to the bank, and I was told that there was nothing they could do. They didn’t even try to help.

How did you respond to that?

Oh, I was really sad about it. I stepped out of the bank and started crying. My brother had to come pick me up from the bank. It wasn’t even my money. 

How were you able to reimburse the money?

My parents were helpful. They paid the money for me.

What did you learn from that experience?

I’ve learnt to not share my OTP with anyone, Now, when I have any issues with the bank, I’ll either go to the bank or send an email.