Nowadays it’s not new to hear incidents of people getting defrauded or robbed of their hard-earned money. One means through which this occurs at present is the use of fake bank credit alerts by spammers.

This scamming method can be performed by sending what is known as a ‘Bulk SMS’. A Bulk SMS sender can create about 230,400 text messages per hour. This method of sending messages began for genuine text sending to a large number of people at a lower cost. Read about how small businesses effectively market their products and services using Bulk SMS here.

But currently, it is misused greatly by con men to send illegal and fake credit alerts under the guise of trusted banks like GT.

To prevent you from falling into the hands of these cheaters, we have provided a few things for you to take note of. This will enable you to tell if the credit alert you get from GT Bank is the real deal or a con.

How to Identify a Real GT Bank Credit Alert

Here are a few ways to tell if the alert you received is real;

 01. Sender ID:

A Sender ID is the name of the person sending the message to you. In this scenario, since you’re receiving a credit alert from your bank, the sender ID should be your bank's name. So if you receive a GT credit alert, the sender ID you should see is “GTBank”. Nothing more and nothing less. So if you see a full stop(.) behind the “bank” or a space between GT and Bank, then it’s not a legitimate credit alert.

02. Alert Format and Features:

You might not know this if you have only one bank. But if you have accounts with different banks, you would see that there is a significant difference in the format of their credit alerts. Go ahead and check, you’ll see that the details are written differently. GTBank credit alerts have this format;

• Account number - “Acct:”
• Amount - “Amt:”
• Description - “Desc:”
• Available Balance - “Avail Bal:”
• Date: and time-00:00 

These five details in the abbreviated form and this exact order are always present in a GTBank credit alert. So if you get something different, the scammer didn’t bother to study the format and you can be certain it’s a scam.

03. NGN and CR:

You must know these two facts. First, In a credit alert from GTBank, after the amount comes the abbreviated form of credit in capital letters. And second, there is nothing like N before the amount.

 Here is an example:

 Amt: NGN10,000.00 CR not Amt: N10,000.00 cr

 If you see something like the second example it is a fake credit alert.

 04. Look at the Available Balance:

 This is the next thing you’ll have to do to know if you receive a real credit alert. No doubt, your bank will always include accurate details of your account balance after a transaction. In short, that’s how you will know it's authentic. If the numbers are inaccurate and don’t correspond with what your balance is supposed to be.

05. Confirm Account Balance:

Finally, if you still don’t believe the SMS credit alert you’ve received from your bank is legitimate, you can confirm the account balance yourself. If you use GTBank Mobile or GT World App, you can check your balance from there. USSD is also another quick method you can use. Dial *737*6*1# to check your account balance with GTBank. If there’s no increment, then you know the drill.

CONCLUSION

Though Bulk SMS services and Messaging apps are misused by fraudulent ones to trick people for their gain, they 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, send promotional and appreciative messages and ask for feedback about the services you provide all with this tool. It is still one of the cheapest ways of business marketing.

At SmartSMSSolutions, you can give your business and personal communication a huge boost using Bulk SMS, voice, Email, and other services all at a low cost. Sign up for a free account at smartsmssolutions!

So that's it with this post. These are the most important things that you need to know that'll enable you to tell if the credit alert you received from GT bank is authentic or fake. Use this information wisely and you'll be able to successfully nab these frauds.