Rather fail with honor than succeed by fraud.

John (Not real name) a call center agent was wrapping up a challenging month of June with a drop in his sales with another drop in loan count, very desperate for sales when a unanimous call came through,

 “I need money you called me some time back saying you can give me a loan in 24 hrs.” said a gentleman on a call.   Being a sales enthusiast John never missed taking on sales opportunities whenever they came. John immediately requests the gentleman to share his documents on the call center WhatsApp number.  

The customer identified as Tom (not real names) had initially dialed using an Airtel number, however there was no success. We later learned this number wasn’t in mambu and hence this wouldn’t go through. 

John was to earn commission off the loan, his team leader and manager were all equally elated over the loan which was to improve the branch’s performance. So, the loan was very important to everyone, they all worked around the clock to ensure this loan is disbursed in the shorted time possible. 

Short story we failed to close him on 30th June.

The Red Flag

During appraisal, credit had questioned the authenticity of the national ID and suggested the customer should be paid via bank, but because the loan came in on the last day of the month as all we overlooked everything and requested credit to pay the customer via phone.

The loan is appraised however the PD call is not picked, through the number he had used the call center manager personally called the customer to pick up the call, he said he hadn’t seen any call from Platinum Credit. He was later asked to use the number he had earlier used at loan creation, the MTN number. “I gave that one out, can I change it?” he asked. “Yes, you can if it’s registered in your names.

“We sent through the request for contact change since it was registered in the customer’s name Joseph Ngobi, but we could not see any red flags because we were desperate for this particular loan,

The question here is why did he opt for a change of contact that easily?

Through the Pre-disbursement call, the client was advised he was to be paid through the bank since he had changed the phone number.  He declined the loan first, but later shared his account number as he had desperately needed the money. This was later found to be different from what the credit internal data had. The credit team opted to pay through the account where his salary is paid, this would later save the company from a 3.3m UGX would be fraud.  Client didn’t see that coming-May be yes, May be no. 

Rightful client walks into Iganga Branch.

“The loan was disbursed on the 2nd July 2021 and on the 19th the same month the branch coordinator in Iganga calls me to narrate the Ordeal.  The rightful customer had lodged a query about cash that had been deposited onto his account without his consent. The genuine customer appeared different from the pictures on mambu, the I.Ds were totally different, the rightful client was dark but the guy we had served was light skinned.  All the other details matched.” Ibrahim Sseremba, the Call center manager Narrated.  

Unanswered Questions.

1.      How did the fraud-star get to know of our internal processes, could it have been one of your colleagues or a fellow staff?

2.      What would have happened if the money had been credited to the newly changed mobile number?

3.       Why did the customer come at the last day of the month? Could it have been due to the very fast loan appraisals done at the end of month when due diligence is not given priority?

Do you have a story to share? Kindly drop an email to Communications@platinumcredit.co.ug