Online Scams Rob Nigerian Banks Of N199 Billion

The need to encourage safe and secure online banking continues as the rate of online theft in Nigeria seems to be on the rise 

Nigerian banks incurred a staggering loss of N199 billion to online fraud between year 2000 and 2014. This could be strongly attributed to inappropriate and reckless management of customers’ data, which are frequently hijacked by desperate fraudsters.

Easy Solutions Ltd, a global e-fraud protection firm organised a research which did a security evaluation of Nigerian banks' websites. The research exercise exposed the invasion of the Nigerian banking system by electronic fraudsters. They have adopted the usage of over 185 fake mobile applications on the websites of 15 out of 17 deposit money banks with which they are extracting customers’ personal and financial information with intent to steal billions of naira from bank accounts.

Leadership Newspapers also revealed the fraudsters have hacked several bank websites in the last four weeks. Email spamming has become a viable tool through which they penetrate both bank database and their customer's email addresses. Their sole aim is to rip the customer of his hard-earned money.

Easy Solutions, which presented these findings at a one-day e-payment anti-fraud forum organised by Winigroup Ltd. in Lagos last Wednesday, also showed that the banks are under constant cyber defacement attacks.

In February this year, Deloitte said phishing and insider threats will continue to be biggest cyber threat sources in Nigeria, especially as crude oil prices continue to fall, reports reveal.

Sources also say in May, the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) ePayment Fraud Landscape Report stated that there was 85 per cent success in fraud attempts. It also noted that automated teller machines (ATMs) had most fraudulent transactions while Internet banking fraud loss was put at N3.2 billion within the last one year.

Bank customers are warned to be careful because app stores were full of fake apps claiming to come from banks, saying once a customer downloads and enters financial information, including credit/debit cards details and personal identity numbers (PIN), his/her money is gone as the fraudster will clone the cards or transfer the money through online banking immediately.

Have something to add to this story? Share your thoughts in the comments section.