Bank fraud: How insiders give customers data to fraudsters

Insiders of banks are said to be colluding with fraudsters in mining customers data which are then used to defraud the customers, especially in electronic banking, National Daily has gathered.

According to investigation, insiders of these banks use their technical knowledge to alter or disable security controls, it can be even more difficult to detect abuse.

For instance, fraudsters now inundate banks’ customers with SMSs to authenticate accounts with banks.

The preciseness of the messages with accompanying data show they could only have gotten the details from insiders in the banks.

Fraudsters send message to customer’s phone claiming that the customer made a mistake while filling his or her account opening forms with a bank.

Armed with customer data, they usually follow up with a call asking if the customer got a text and if the customer registered his or her BVN with the bank.

The fraudster will now reel out your personal biodata and ask the customer to confirm the details.

If the customer is cooperative, the fraudster will send him or her a text with a code and ask him or her to have his or her ATM card close.

Once, they get your digits on your ATM, the customer’s fund is good as gone.

Investigations showed that a group of bank employees are helping these fraudsters with information about account owners and potential targets.

Only recently, the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) decried the increase in fraud cases attributed to internal abuse by staff of banks.

Curiously, most of the fraud were internet, ATM-related.

Earlier, the Central Bank Nigeria (CBN) Financial Stability Report (FSR) had revealed that the value of fraudulent activities in the Nigerian banking sector rose to N5.52 billion at the end of the 2017 financial year, while the value of 2016 fraud was N4.12 billion.

As punishment, the proposal by Jones Onyereri, chairman of the House of Representatives’ committee on banking and currency, for a fine of N20 million per day for infractions like insider abuse should be revisited.