The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has argued that its relentless efforts at regularly reviewing security structures around the nation’s digital banking revolution has kept internet fraudsters in the banking sector, at a disadvantaged position to unleash terror on unsuspecting bank customers
Deputy Governor of the apex bank, Bayo Adelabu, made the revelation during the 2017 annual retreat of the Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF) held in Ibadan recently.
According to him, “These internet fraudsters would never recover again because the apex bank will continue to strengthen the fight against e-fraud in Nigeria”.
Giving insights in his keynote address, the banker averred that “In this age of digitalization and increased adoption of alternate forms of payment for goods and services, the importance, role and relevance for an industry fraud forum serves no longer as an option but must feature and play a conspicuous role in ensuring not only the security of members, but also of that of the consumer who they all intend to serve.
He was quick to commend the activities of over the years, saying “The organization in collaboration with other stakeholders had successfully implemented the Cybercrime Prohibition and Prevention Act 2015, under the theme; Tackling Enforcement Challenges Under The Cybercrime Act”.
However, the banking sector recorded 31,736 fraud cases involving the sum of N16.5bn between January 2014 and December 2016, figures obtained by our correspondent from the Central Bank of Nigeria have revealed.
The fraud statistics are contained in the Nigerian Electronic Fraud Report, which was prepared by the Banking and Systems Payment Department of the CBN.
The frauds were perpetrated through various payment channels in the banking sector such as Across the Counter, Automated Teller Machines, cheques and electronic-commerce platforms.
Others are Internet banking, mobile banking, Point-of-Sale (PoS) and web transactions.
The report stated that in the last three years, there had been more attempts in the number of fraud cases, adding that the development might be linked to the economic hardship being experienced in the country.
For instance, the report stated that the volume of fraud cases rose by 635.3 per cent from 1,461 incidents in 2014 to 10,743 in 2015.
Between 2015 and 2016, the report stated that the incidents of fraud rose by 81.8 per cent from 10,743 to 19,532 cases.
Cumulatively, the incidence of fraud rose by 1,236 per cent within the three-year period under review.
