Cyber criminals swindle bank customers

DESPITE efforts by industry regulators and anti-fraud agencies, there seems to be no respite for fraud victims in the country as cyber crime perpetrators continue to swindle unsuspecting bank customers.
Investigations by the Nigerian Tribune showed that most of the frauds are perpetrated via internet. The fraudsters keep changing their strategies while bank customers keep falling victim to their ploy.
The fraudsters are currently exploiting the challenges some banks are facing since the cash-less policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) pilot project took off in Lagos early in the year which is making them to migrate to electronic payment channels to limit the use of cash.
The cyber criminals, who have gone sophisticated hack into banks’ website and use their materials to swindle bank customers.
Recalling his ordeal with one of the fraudsters recently, an SME operator, Junaid Awoyemi, said he received a mail supposedly from his bank, stating that it was embarking on system upgrade to another server, advising him to follow its instructions in order to migrate.
According to him, he had completed the upgrade by supplying his account number and other vital information before a customer of his intervened, stressing that the bank later confirmed that the instruction did not originate from them.
Reacting to the heightened fraudster activities, the chairman, Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF), Mr. Emmanuel Obaigbona, said increased awareness for all stakeholders was required in order to build the confidence of Nigerians in the e-payment system.
According to him, “while we have made considerable progress in the fight against e-fraud, we still have a long way to go in enlightening all stakeholders in the industry on e-payments fraud prevention.”
The CBN economic report for the first half of 2012 showed that there were 2,300 reported cases of attempted or successful fraud and forgery, involving N7.11 billion, compared with 1,393 cases, valued at N6.52 billion recorded at the end of the corresponding period of 2011.