Total Exposure in Inclement Weather

I bet so many of you had a healthy laugh a few weeks ago when I wrote about having to run all over Owerri to close a transaction with my debit card. You would have called me analogue (my kids privately think I’m stone-age). This was something I could have done by transfer from my phone to the receiver’s account, if I didn’t have my car driving backwards.

I take it all in good faith. Thankfully, I didn’t go as far as trying to pay with money order from the post office! But my apparent tech-reticence is more than just age-induced inertia. The speed of tech-intrusion into our lives leaves me unnerved.

Every bit of information is getting linked and we stand naked before the world. It’s pleasant when the computer (including your phone) gathers and presents to you the kind of content you like. But does it cross your mind that the same device can be used in gathering information to work against you?

I once used the internet banking application. It was incident-free. But I heard stories of other people who had incidents with the app which ended with unauthorized intrusion into their bank accounts. I just couldn’t afford such incidents, whether caused by myself or another person/institution.

My phone crashed in July 2020, and I tried to get the internet banking app into the new phone but it wouldn’t download. I complained to Zenith Bank, and the customer service told me that I had to apply for them to block access to the old phone and allow download of the app with my details into the new phone. My mind told me to forget the app, as that leaves me safer. I did so and have not done internet banking for over a year. And besides having to run round Owerri to make a small payment, I never missed it. I felt a bit more protected than when I had the app.

So, when my phone was stolen on Saturday, September 25, my only worry was about having to buy another phone. I never did internet banking with the stolen phone, and I felt safe. You can then imagine my surprise when I realized on Monday that my bank account had been accessed by unauthorized person(s) and online purchases made right from the Saturday evening when the phone was stolen till Monday morning when I got the bank to block transactions on the account.

My thinking is that the bank has failed in one of its primary functions which is keeping money and other valuables safe for clients. It will have to answer to me for that.

Unless you’ve been through this, you can’t imagine the stress it entails getting your phone line replaced. I spent an entire day at Globacom office in Owerri trying to get my line blocked and then retrieved from the criminals (who had the guts to write on my Facebook timeline). Mind you, the lady working on the ‘Welcome Back’ package never left her desk. She ate biscuits for lunch while working. But her machine speed …

The form that I filled requested information on my date of birth, my home town, my mother’s name and maiden name, amongst others. When it was finally my turn, the lady in charge took my biometrics, and then requested for my National Identity Card (NIN) number. I gave her my NIN generated through the bank. She entered the number and the machine rejected it. She asked me to go to the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) office to validate the details.

I have been going through the motions of this ‘validation’ with the NIMC and the grind is still on. The details are boring, bordering on stupidity, for why would the number be valid, but I have to go every step to ‘validate’ it? I finally got ‘captured’ as their biometrics is called, on October 7. Then, I was told to come in two weeks for the ID card. Again, they took information including details about my parents (including their villages), my mother’s maiden name, my village, my Bank Verification Number (BVN) etc.

By the time you give out all these pieces of information, you are standing practically naked in front of all people of varying integrity. Knowing what we know about the Minister of Communication, Dr Isa Pantami, I would hesitate about giving him my business card. But I’m forced to stand stark naked before him (and his infamous friends) by default courtesy of this NIN. They can chase you right to your village or the villages of your parents for legal or illegal reasons. They can peek into your bank accounts and see if you have enough money to hire a lawyer if they have disputes with you.

Isa Pantami is the one we know and many abhor. But there’s a whole legion of criminals in and out of government who can put any of us in danger of all kinds courtesy of the information mining they have foisted on us through the linking of the identity and communication systems.

As I wait out one whole month to replace my phone lines, I keep dreaming of million dollar consultancy deals which had refused to come when I had my phone coming through now that I can’t take the calls!

But spend a moment and think of what can be done by all kinds of criminals (including, or in collusion with the ones in government) and you may have a cold shudder like I do. We are all standing naked before them, and they are ruthless.