NDIC warns about bank fraud, saying fraudsters are becoming more creative

Nigeria’s Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has warned bank customers to always ensure that their tokens are well secured, amid increased incidents of bank bank fraud.

The NDIC issued the warning in a press statement made available on Friday, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

Secure your details: The NDIC said bank customers should not display their banking details to anyone. Part of the statement said:

• “The Corporation said that customers should ensure that their phones had password and they must not share their bank mobile application password to anyone.
• “NDIC also warned bank customers to ensure that their token were secured and other parties did not have access to it.”

They also urged customers to ensure that their debit card numbers and Card Verification Value (CVV) were not exposed to people.

Increased banking fraud: The warning is coming weeks after Nairametrics reported that more Nigerian bank workers are taking advantage of their access to defraud customers, a report by FITC has established.

The report was based on an investigation by FITC into fraudulent activities in Nigerian banks which revealed that 19 employees of banks were sacked between April and June 2022 due to their involvement in fraudulent activities.

This represents a 90% increase compared to 10 recorded in Q1 2022, according to FITC. Also, a comparison of the data with the same quarter in 2021 showed an alarming 375% increase, as only 4 dismissals for fraud were recorded in Q2 2021.

With a total of N1.17 billion lost to frauds across 24 banks in Nigeria in the second quarter of 2022, 73 bank staff were reported to have been involved in the activities, a 27.6% increase when compared with 60 recorded in the first quarter of the year.

Channels of frauds:  The report shows that mobile fraud which includes fraud activities through USSD transactions had the highest occurrence followed by computer/web fraud and POS fraud. Highlighting the various channels where the frauds had been committed, FITC said:

• “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).  
• “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.”