Frauds and forgeries in the nation’s banking sub sector were perpetrated the most through Point of Sale (PoS), web and mobile banking platforms in the first quarter (Q1) of 2023, Nigeria’s training cum consulting firm, the Financial Institutions Training Centre (FITC), has disclosed in its Q1 2023 report.
FITC stated that the cumulative amount Nigerian banks lost to frauds and forgeries fell by 69.3 percent on a year-on-year basis to N472.3 million at the end of Q1 2023, compared with a similar period in 2022 when N3.18 billion was lost.
Fraudsters comprising employees of banks and outsiders, made 12,553 attempts between January and March 2023, in contrast to 14,609 attempts in the first three months of 2022, an indication of a 69 percent decline in fraud and forgery attempts.
The total money involved in the overall fraud attempts made in the first quarter of 2023 was N2.59 billion, compared to a whooping N12.59 billion in Q1 2022.
Out of the 12,553 fraud attempts made in Q1 2023, outsiders made 12,351 attempts while bank employees made 72 attempts during the period. As of the end of the first quarter of 2022, out of 14,609 fraud attempts made, outsiders made 13,436 attempts while insiders who are bank employees made 38 attempts.
“With regards to the volume of money involved, an increase was recorded in Mobile and PoS fraud amounts. The amount involved in mobile fraud increased by 17.85 percent from N938 million to N1.1 billion while PoS fraud amount involved increased from N241 million to N450 million, representing an 86.73 percent increase.
“On the other hand, there was a decrease in the amount involved in computer/web, ATM and bank branch frauds with computer/web fraud recording a significant decrease of 96.90 percent from N10.6 billion to N646 million. Amount involved in ATM fraud decreased by 54.64 percent from N52.3 million to N23.7 million,” FITC stated.
By channel of fraud and forgeries perpetrated, 4,982 mobile fraud attempts were made almost all by outsiders with the total monetary value at stake put at N1.105 billion. Based on the data provided, N160.92 million was lost.
Another 5,173 fraud attempts were made through computer/web channels. Three were perpetrated by banks while 5,166 attempts were made by outsiders. The banking system lost N130.78 million out of N646.57 million that was at stake.
The banking system also recorded 15 fraud cases involving bank tellers out of which bank employees perpetrated two while outsiders perpetrated seven. Another six fraud attempts were through collusion. According to the report, the total money involved was N13.44 million while N9.56 million was lost.
Nine fraud attempts were made using cheques with forged signatures. Five out of these attempts were made by outsiders with the total money involved in the nine attempts put at N34.25 million, but no amount was lost.
PoS fraud worth N450.55 million was perpetrated through 1,985 fraud attempts in the first quarter of 2023, out of which N6.43 million was lost.
In 2022, PwC disclosed through its annual survey that external fraudsters were becoming a bigger threat as attacks increased and became more sophisticated. It submitted that fraud and financial crime rates against business remained consistent since 2018, despite supply chain issues, environmental and geopolitical instability, an uncertain economy and many emerging threats.
