“My account is locked, I cannot complete any transaction”
“Why is my Payday account restricted?”
These are some complaints that we have seen from our customers, and we would like to address the reasons behind this, give some more context to why it can happen, and share the steps to easily resolve locked/restricted accounts on Payday.
Rising cases of Fraud and Prohibited Activities
In recent years, the fintech industry has become one of the world’s fastest growing markets in the tech sector, including here in Nigeria. According to Market Data Forecast, the global industry is expected to reach $324 billion by 2026 and an expected compound growth of 25% from 2022 to 2027.
This is particularly influenced by major focus on areas helping upwardly mobile young people transact business seamlessly and globally. However, this has also given rise to cybercriminals and fraudulent people trying to scam unsuspecting users. Globally, payment fraud in the fintech industry grew 121% 2020 to 2021 — making it the sector most targeted by payment fraud, followed by the travel and hospitality industry with 34% annual growth in fraud attacks, according to a 2022 Q1 report by Sift.
Hence the need to take drastic measures to constantly monitor and lock-out customers who we suspect are involved in fraudulent or prohibited activities. We have intensified efforts in this area in recent months.
Reasons why your account may be restricted
As part of efforts to check fraudulent and prohibited activities, and as required by regulation, there are a number of reasons why we might need to place restrictions on a customer’s account. They include but not limited to the following:
- If we noticed that the security of your account has been compromised.
- If we notice unusual activity that may be linked to fraud.
- If your activities violate directives of key regulatory authorities or our internal policies.
However, these decisions are not taken lightly, and are handled with utmost attention and consideration. We understand how inconveniencing it can be for legitimate customers to be unable to access their funds, and so, when we restrict an account, we immediately begin investigations internally.
We engage affected customers via email and work with our compliance team to resolve them. And in rare cases where innocent accounts are affected, after due diligence, such accounts are unlocked and customers may continue to transact freely.
Once an account is restricted/locked on Payday, you will not be able to complete any transaction on the app–withdraw to a bank account, transfer to another user or pay bills.
Restriction of accounts is a security measure that helps to protect our users, and the integrity of our platform.
What do I do if my Account is restricted on Payday?
The process is easy and straightforward. We will collect some important information to verify your identity and understand your transaction history. We will also ask some questions to help us understand why you were flagged for unusual activities.
The first part includes:
- Collecting a government-issued ID card: This basically helps to confirm your identity.
- A clear image or video of you holding the card: Just in case someone else is trying to access your account with your ID card and to ascertain that you are the one requesting for your account to be unrestricted.
- A clear image or video of you holding a sheet of paper with the review date written on it: This helps to ensure that you are making the request in real-time.
*In some cases this can also happen over a zoom call.
Once you have provided the required information, our compliance team will reach out to you.
How long does it take to resolve locked accounts?
Usually, it could take between 5-10 working days on very basic issues around compromised accounts, or resolving issues involving innocent customers whose accounts were flagged for unusual activities.
However, for major fraud related-cases, regulatory oversight or actions that go against our terms of use can range between 6-10 weeks (and this could be more depending on how much investigation we have to conclude to resolve the issue).
Within this time, the support or compliance team would have reached out to you via email or directly on the in-app support to give you more context on why your account was locked, and how to avoid being flagged in the future.
We take issues of restricted accounts very seriously. Hence, the length of time is usually dependent on the severity of the issues. In all, these actions are important to help us keep your money safe, prevent authorized access to your account, and prevent the activities of bad actors on our platform.
How do I contact Payday Support?
We do what we do because we want to serve you. For enquiries or assistance, please reach out to us via the in-app chat or via email support@usepayday.com and we will be glad to help you out.