Hackers and fraudsters steal N1.17b as anti-graft agencies fail to check them
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Bank customers in Nigeria lost N1.17 billion to fraud in the second quarter of 2022 (Q2 2022) alone, a growing trend that has escalated to a daily occurrence as anti-graft agencies focus on other areas and do little to stop this crime.
The Financial Institutions Training Centre (FITC) says data from 24 banks shows N1.17 billion was stolen out of a total N8.78 billion involved in fraud cases, even though the number of cases declined.
A total 27,356 incidents of fraud and forgeries were reported in Q2 2022, compared with 40,522 in Q1 2022, decrease of 32.49 per cent.
Total sums involved slashed 40.05 per cent from N14.65 billion in Q1 2022 to N8.78 billion in Q2 2022, as well as total amount lost, which reduced 23.66 per cent from N1.54 billion in Q1 2022 to N1.17 billion in Q2 2022.
The report shows mobile fraud – which includes fraud through USSD – occurred the most, followed by computer/web fraud and POS fraud.
“Evaluating the total amount lost to frauds in Q2 2022 reveals that Mobile Fraud accounts for 38.18% at N449 million loss, followed by Miscellaneous & other types of fraud accounting for 32.19% (N379 million) and Suppression of Entries at 11.02% (N129.64million),” the FITC said.
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Areas of increase and decrease in fraud
“A closer look at the unusual amount recorded under the Miscellaneous fraud revealed that the fraud was carried out via E-naira for which the banks were liable,” FITC added, per Nairametrics.
“With regards to the returns by payment channel, the analysis reveals that there was a decrease in the amount lost to fraud via the Web, ATM and POS channels.
“The amount lost via the Web channel decreased considerably from N1.07 billion to N98.4 million while the amount lost via the ATM channel decreased from N43 million to N5.9 million.
“On the other hand, an increase was noted in the amount lost via the Bank Branch, Mobile fraud channels, from N103.45 million to N618.24 million (497.56%) and N270.92 million to N449.03 million (65.74).”
The FITC commended banks for the overall decrease in fraud incidents, amount involved, and actual amount lost but urged them to strengthen internal controls to improve efficiency, pre-empt fraud activities, and ultimately prevent fraud.
It also stressed the need to support internal controls through greater customer sensitisation on the prevalence of fraud and how to protect themselves from such it.
About FITC
FITC is a not-for-profit professional organisation which has as members the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), and all licensed banks in Nigeria.
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