It’s Monday morning. The start of the working day for many businessmen and working-class citizens. Lola, an accessory seller, prepares early and opens up shop. In time, customers come in to make purchases and a fruitful day begins. Later that day, two young men walk into Lola’s store and browse the aisles for quite an expensive item. They pick it up and go to the counter to buy it. But, they explain that they would like to do a mobile transfer and ask Lola for her phone number and bank details. She gives it to them to make the transfer. After a few minutes, she receives a credit alert from “Access bank” on her phone. At the same time, they show her a debit alert from their end. They leave with the goods. Some hours later, Lola checks her account balance and sees no increment. It is then she realizes she got duped!

Those young men were crooks and she fell for the Fake Credit Alert from her bank. It’s too late now as these fraudsters are long gone and she has no means of finding them. Lola has incurred a huge loss.

Many people today have found themselves in a similar situation as Lola. They have fallen victim to fake bank alert swindlers. These scammers use forged Access bank SMS alerts as proof of transaction payments.

It’s all too easy to fall prey to this shocking tactic. But there are a few ways that can enable you to decipher if the access bank credit alert you receive is a real or fake one. This post will cover that.

Access Bank Credit Alert Features

Here are a few things to keep an eye out for when you receive an Access bank Credit alert;

01. Legible sender Name:

This is the foremost thing you should check when you receive a credit alert from your bank. Access Bank will never send you an SMS credit alert using a personal phone number. Instead of seeing a credit alert from a number e.g. 0905***461, the message will have a legible sender name e.g. ‘Access Bank’. Yet, this isn't always the case, as some of these fraudsters disguise their numbers as the bank name. Still, if the SMS alert you get is not from a legible sender, that is a sure banker the alert is fake.

02. Check the Thread:

Now you received a credit alert from “Access Bank”. Ensure you open the notification and check the message thread. It is unlikely that a message from your bank will not be part of previous credit alert threads sent to you before. That can only happen if it’s the first transaction you’ve ever done since you subscribed for the service. This is another way to distinguish a fake alert from a real one. Compare the two SMS messages and see if you notice any differences.

03. Credit Alert Details:

 Not all scammers are smart. Some of them are new to this con and might not be able to copy a credit alert exactly. Access bank credit alerts are different from those of other banks and will always contain this information;

•  Credit (header)
•  Amount - ‘Amt:’
•  Account number - ‘Acc:’
•  Description - ‘Desc:’
•  ‘Time:’
•  Available Balance - ‘Avail Bal:’
•  Total balance - ‘Total Bal:’

So be as thorough as you can while examining the credit alert. If any of these details are missing, it’s a fake one.

04. Cross Check Available Balance:

 This is the only detail that these swindlers will not be able to manipulate exactly. Remember, they have no idea of how much you have in your account. Except the person scamming you is someone close to you who knows. So even if you see an available balance heading it would be wise to still take a closer look at the figures there. Does the amount correspond with your account balance? If not, it’s your best bet that the alert is fake.

05. USSD Account Balance Confirmation:

  This is the easiest method of checking the validity of the credit alert you receive. You might still not be sure, even if you don't see any glaring mistakes in the SMS alert. Thus, it’s better to take a few moments to confirm your balance before allowing your customer to leave. The USSD code to check your Access bank account balance is *901*00#. If the alert you received does not reflect in your balance then it's a fake one.

CONCLUSION

Frauds misuse Bulk SMS services and Special messaging apps to trick people for their gain. Though these technologies started as legitimate ways for getting genuine messages to people and they still are! Especially for marketing purposes. You can inform clients and business associates of new products. Besides that, you can send promotional and appreciative messages. You can also ask for feedback about the services you provide all with these tools. Sending Bulk messages is still one of the cheapest ways of business marketing.

At SmartSMSSolutions, you can use Bulk SMS, voice OTP, and other services to boost your business and personal communication. All at a low cost! Sign up for a free account with us at Smartsmssolutions.

With that aside, you don't ever have to fall prey to fraudsters and be defrauded of your hard earned money. If you properly apply the steps outlined in this post, you'll no doubt be able to identify scammers and verify the credibility of any Access Bank credit alert you receive.