By CHIDI UGWU

A whopping sum of N5.20 billion may have been lost in financial frauds by various bank customers in Nigeria, in nine months between January and September, 2020, a report just released by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), has indicated.

In the various incidents attributed to the rising electronic transactions, NIBBS said the staggering sum involved 41,979 fraud related incidents representing 91% success out of the total 46,126 fraud attempts.

The data further showed that N203.357 million were partially lost by customers in 984 fraud attempts while 3,163 fraud attempts were repelled in incidents that could have resulted in the loss of N380.159 million.

A breakdown of the various fraud incidents in 2020, shows that majority of the frauds were perpetrated via the web representing 47 %, Mobile transaction – 36 %, Automated Teller Machine – 9% while internet banking accounted to 1 %.

On year on year growth, Mobile channel fraud rose by 330 %, even as Web and Point of Sales channel frauds rose by 173 percent and 215 % respectively, from 2019 to 2020.

During the first nine months of 2020, July represented the biggest loss for customers, as over 7,000 fraud cases were recorded.

January and March followed closely with over 5,000 fraud attempts.

On the technique applied to defraud bank customers in 2020, NIBSS revealed that Social Engineering which is a way of manipulating victims into giving away sensitive information, remains one of the principal strategies in which fraudulent activities are attempted.

NIBBS disclosed that 56 % of fraud techniques were Social Engineering, followed by phone theft, card theft and fake assistance which represented 6%.

PIN compromise was 3 % of the total fraud activities, robbery – 2%, Lack of 2FA – 1.9 %, missing/ loss of card – 1% and phone theft – 1%. (Daily Independent)

Update news