Follow Us on Google
Chinwendu Obienyi
Nigeria, the most populous country and the largest economy on the African continent, is widely regarded as an African powerhouse.
This is because it is blessed with abundant natural resources and a young, dynamic population. Also, the country has long played an important role on the continent and it has the potential to be a wider global player in the coming decades.
Central to its potential in becoming a wider global player lies in how the country’s main sectors, especially its indices, perform because a country with good macroeconomic indices is said to attract investments which, in turn, increase development in either the short, medium or long term.
However, a favourable environment for short, medium or long term growth has to be devoid of vices like violence and, of course, fraud in the financial system. Fraud, which is a wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain, has been acknowledged as one of the principal threats to the development of the banking and financial services sector worldwide.
Indeed, there was a growing trend in the perpetration of cybercrime such as phishing, electronic card fraud, Automated Teller Machine (ATM) scams, hacking, malware attacks, identity theft, denial of service attacks, and business e-mail compromise fraud during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic lockdown.
Due to restrictions placed on several businesses, including banks, fraudsters saw an opportunity to target many financial products, including current and savings accounts.
According to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Financial Stability Report, major payment channels in Nigeria were hit with the high reported fraud incidences in 2018.
Daily Sun investigations reveal that these incidences was as a result of some bank customers’ failure to safeguard their ATM cards, greed, usage of third party or representatives to deposit cash, late prompt notification to the bank upon loss or theft of sensitive items (like ATM card, sim card – phone that is linked to one’s bank account) and compromise of bank account details.
Commenting on the subject, Mr Johnson Chukwu, CEO, Cowry Assets Management Limited, opined that to address electronic payment fraud, one needs to have multiple layers of security built into your electronic financial transactions.
According to him, account holders must be discreet with revealing their password while there is also greed on the part of individuals where they are enticed by fraudsters with rewards that are not realistic.
“There has to be prompt notice to the bank by the family of a customer, following the demise of the customer. This is pivotal to preventing unauthorised persons from having access to the funds, pending when the funds will be properly discharged by administrators. Furthermore, it will reduce fraudulent activities on deceased customers’ accounts and ensure funds are discharged according to stipulated laws”, he said.
Corroborating him, Managing Director, APT Securities, Kurfi Garba, said most bank customers are guilty of sending cash to banks for deposits through third parties which is risky while adding that customers should always obtain evidence of deposit (receipt) upon cash lodgement in the bank.
“Firstly, the bank should be promptly notified upon loss or theft of sensitive items (like ATM card, sim card – phone that is linked to one’s bank account) and compromise of bank account details. Secondly, after transactions are done as regards online banking, the customer should always select the log-out button and never leave his/her PC unattended while logged in to the service. Furthermore, passwords are the keys to personal and account information and so care must be exercised in constructing passwords and not giving them to third party”, Kurfi advised.
