First City Monument Bank customer (name withheld) based in Benin City, Edo State has lost N4.5 million to suspected cyber criminals.

These withdrawals were split into two tranches from another bank by fraudsters who cloned his account, thereby making it impossible for him to receive alerts from FCMC since on Friday November 25, 2022, according to investigation.

The FCMB customer at Mission Road Branch in Benin City, Edo State Capital, began to sense danger after the customer received spam messages on his phone, while his account officer, promptly responded by tightening the noose on the fraudsters from further withdrawing the outstanding balance money from his account.

A senior management staff of the new generation Bank, according to a dependable source, assured the customer, an Octogenarian who raised the alarm in FCMB whose management is now cooperating with him to apprehend the suspects.

The source hinted that such withdrawal could not have taken place without the cyber criminals duplicating the account number of the Customer .

The staff of the bank, however, assured the victim of fraud that the Management of the bank in collaboration with operatives of the Financial Crimes Unit in the State Criminal Investigation Department of the Edo State Police Command had commenced investigation into the crime with a view to arresting and prosecuting the culprits.

It was gathered that the Bank customer who did not want his name on print due to security concern, according to the source, has being operating the account for a long time.

The devastated victim of fraud has also taken up the full financial commitment to provide logistics for the operatives of the Financial Crimes Unit of SCID to begin investigation into the Financial Crime in his quest to track down the suspects.

Contacted, the Bank management, declined comments on the incident.