When a friend told me he used the *894# USSD code from Firstbank to recharge his phone, that his Firstbank Account was debited with N200 but he never got the airtime on is Airtel Phone, I didn't believe him; besides, i thought one should not make too much noise over mere N200 because you can't transport yourself to the bank to complain of N200, it sounds somehow.

My own experience started last month when I tried to use the *894# code to try to top up my Airtel line, they quickly debited my account with the N100 but i never got the airtime on my Airtel line, again, i thought to myself: how does one complain of N100, even when people hear you complain of such a small amount won't they think you are so poor that you can't let go of N100? so, I forgot about it.

Last week Thursday, again, I tried to top up my wife's Airtel line with N100 with this same *894# code; as usual, they quickly debited my account with N100 without crediting her the airtime, i collected her phone and checked the balance -N0.00, so I told her to continue to wait for them maybe its network, it was then my wife told me she has also used the *894# code to try to recharge her phone with N200 a day earlier, that Firstbank also debited her without crediting her phone, immediately i began to suspect Firstbank might be using this code to scam people when they try to recharge their Phones with the *894# code.

One thing I still don't understand is: I regularly use this code to transfer money to people without problem, so why are we having problems using it to recharge our Phones. We were at the hospital that very Thursday and we needed to call people, so again, I tried to recharge myself without N500, as usual, they quickly debited my Firstbank account without crediting the Airtime to my phone (see screenshots bellow).

I have called Airtel, they said Firstbank will refund the money that they might not alert me when the money is being refunded, so I continued to check my account balance since Thursday, no reversal. One of the channels Firstbank use to resolve dispute is their email: firstcontact@firstbanknigeria.com. I sent a mail complaining of this issues to them since Thursday, all I got was an auto-reply from.

Think about the billions they might have made from this simple fraud (N100 from 1,000,000, customers is N100,000,000) so, one cannot but ask this question: Is Firstbank's *894# USSD Code Now A Scam?

So, please Nairalanders, has anyone experienced this problem, or is the problem peculiar to Airtel network only.

They deducted #1000 from me without crediting my Mtn line, although I mailed them am yet to get a reversal from them. I will mail cbn to complain about this deduction.