Fraudsters steal N472m, with mobile banking as major conduit
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Bank customers lost N472 million to fraudsters in the first quarter of the year ended March (Q1 2023), gleaned from a report by Financial Institutions Training Centre (FITC).
A total 12,553 cases of fraud were recorded in Q1 2023 but there was a decline in losses compared to Q4 2022.
FITC members are drawn from members of the Nigerian Banker’s Committee, which comprises the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), and all licensed banks.
The FITC said N3.18 billion was lost to fraud across banking platforms in Q4 2022, which means the figure declined 85.13 per cent in Q1 2023.
There was also a 79.44 per cent decrease in the amount cornered up in fraud cases, from N12.58 billion in Q4 2022 to N2.59 billion in Q1 2023.
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Mobile banking accounts for 43% of fraud cases
Reported fraud cases totalled 12,553 in Q1 2023, a 14.07 per cent reduction on 14,609 cases in Q4 2022, according to FITC data, per reporting by The PUNCH.
Fraud in Q1 2023 occurred mostly through mobile, computer/web, and PoS, which was consistent with the trend from Q4 2022.
“For Q1 2023 under review, an analysis of the magnitude-based ranking of fraud categories shows that mobile fraud has the highest ranking which accounts for N1.1bn (42.72 per cent), and this is followed by the computer/web fraud category at N646m (24.99 per cent),” the FITC said.
“This was followed by PoS fraud at N450m (17.41 per cent) and fraudulent withdrawals at N139m (5.36 per cent).
“From the total amount lost in Q1, 2023, the data also revealed that mobile fraud accounted for 34.07 per cent at N161m followed by computer/web fraud accounting for 27.69 per cent at N130m and fraudulent withdrawals representing 24.72 per cent at N116m.”