A single grandmother has made an impassioned plea to Prime Minister Gaston Browne after her entire life savings vanished during a debit card fraud.
In an open letter to the Antigua & Barbuda leader, Loretta Harrigan reveals that she is a “struggling grandmother, trying to cope in these tough economic times.”
“I just had all of my meager life savings disappear from my account at the Antigua Commercial Bank,” the woman said in the letter to Browne who is a former banker and the minister for finance.
She said someone in England conducted four fraudulent online transactions, in the space of a few minutes, using her Visa Debit card.
The grandmother says she has no connections to England.
She said the worst part of the scenario is that the bank is unable to help her.
“After waiting for four months for the bank to conduct its investigation, I was told that the bank is not obligated to refund my money, then drew my attention to Clause 23 of the Debit Card Agreement.”
How can this be right? Where is the responsibility of the bank in all of this, to protect its customers’ money,” the victim asked.
She urged PM Browne, “please use your high office to help me and many other poor black brothers and sisters that this has happened to. I have no money and nowhere else to turn.”
The Antigua Barbuda Bankers Association in a recent statement said its stepping up public awareness because in the last few months, the region has seen a spate of fraudulent activities online.
The statement said that members of the association are committed to safeguarding customers’ personal information but urged them to remain vigilante.
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Its bad that banks continue to force unwanted services sucs as debit cards on their customers, young and old, without the necessary education and protection. How is it that we have protection for credit cards (spending bank’s money) but not for debit cards which is the customer’s money placed in the trust of the bank?
need to up the security for these banks why would the bank allow a transaction from another country without approval??? really man???? the bank didnt even handle the situation on a customer friendly basis #shocking
shocking
Antigua needs to get with the times like banks in USA and other large countries cause they would be the ones calling and informing instead of you find out yourself these fraudsters realize they can’t do it in the large nations so they are atracking small countries who they know are vulnerable and it is tak uh ng Antigua too long to get into action. Banka are professional robbers
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