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Nigerians Drag Opay For Creating Accounts Without Their consent
Some Nigerians have taken to social media to show their displeasure as popular Fintech giant, Opay created accounts for them without consenting them.
BrandNewsDay Nigeria reports that netizens have started dragging Opay for creating Opay wallets with their registered phone numbers without them being aware. Adding that what legal rights does the Fintech company possess to infringe on their privacy.
This allegation by Nigerians prompted the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) to act in its capacity to call on the company to provide answers to questions on many lips of Nigerians, who ordered an account to be created with their phone numbers.
Fintech company, OPay, may have some explanations to do to Nigerians as more discoveries are unveiled by many people that they have an account in their name with the company even without opening one.
The issue which emanated from the popular micro-blogging platform, X, formerly Twitter, on Monday has seen many people coming out to confirm that they are just discovering they have an account with the company through their mobile number.
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OPay as a licensed mobile money operator, uses customers’ mobile numbers as their account numbers.
It is, however, unclear yet how people who have not approached the company for account opening are seeing their number as an OPay account with their full names.
Some X users claimed that they tested with a phone number that has never been registered with OPay, using a GTBank app and it showed the full name of one of their bosses.
The X user said, ”I tried a transaction was initiated to transfer N200 to the account and it successfully went through.
”A debit alert was received from GTB, but the question remains where did the money go?”
Speaking on the account created in his name, an X user identified as @hackSultan wrote:
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“I just checked now and someone, I have an Opay account, same with every member of my family. None of us has ever opened an Opay account. How’s this even legal?”
I just checked now and someone, I have an Opay account, same with every member of my family.
None of us has ever opened an Opay account…….
How’s this even legal?
— Name cannot be blank (@hackSultan) October 2, 2023
This prompted other people to check their number. This can be done by trying to send money from another bank app and then selecting OPay as the receiving bank and typing your phone number as the account number without the first “0” digit.
Another X user, @0sadebame tried this and confirmed that there is an OPay account for her two lines.
“It’s quite a discovery. Both my lines have an OPay account registered to them. I’ve never used Opay before,” she said.
It was the same for @Lost_DWTBF, who shared:
I just checked now and someone, I have an Opay account, same with every member of my family.
None of us has ever opened an Opay account…….
How’s this even legal?
— Name cannot be blank (@hackSultan) October 2, 2023
“I just checked mine and is the same. @OPay_NG, is there a reason why my number is registered when I have never?”
I just checked now and someone, I have an Opay account, same with every member of my family.
None of us has ever opened an Opay account…….
How’s this even legal?
— Name cannot be blank (@hackSultan) October 2, 2023
Reacting to the posts and complaints by the affected people, the Chief Executive Officer of the FCCPC, Mr Babatunde Irukera, said OPay would have to explain how this is happening and promised to provide an update.
The result was the same for many other people without an OPay account who checked and found out there is an OPay account to their number and with their full names.
“OPAY is bound to @fccpcnigeria to address and explain this and other anomalies consumers have identified in the last few days,” he said in his X post while responding to posts on the issue.
Reacting to the allegations, OPay said it has acknowledged that it had also come across the complaints on X and has started investigations to unravel the mystery.
The company’s Head of Marketing, Kunle Adeyemi, however, noted that some of the affected people might have had interactions with OPay in the past.
“We saw these tweets yesterday and internally we are currently reviewing what transpired as we ensure that all wallet holders are adequately registered. Some people might have had interactions with the platform at one point or the other, it’s important that I get feedback internally based on our investigation before we respond,” he said.
