The Managing Director of Moniepoint Microfinance Bank, Mr. Babatunde Olofin, has cautioned Nigerians against sharing their account numbers publicly, especially during the festive season, to avoid falling victim to cyber fraud.
Babatunde revealed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday.
He emphasized the importance of cyber security awareness, warning that such actions could lead to unwitting involvement in criminal activities and imprisonment.
“My biggest advice is for people to stop sharing their account numbers in public. Some people are in prison because they had no idea what someone used their accounts for,” Olofin said.
He explained that fraudsters often exploit public information to commit financial crimes, with unsuspecting individuals bearing the consequences.
Babatunde emphasized the need for vigilance, noting that giveaways are often a guise to harvest personal details.
“People don’t love you as much to be giving you giveaways. So, you should know that they are harvesting your details. Your bank account is a private detail,” he stated.
Common fraud tactics
Babatunde detailed how fraudsters use attractive offers of free gifts and cash rewards to lure victims into sharing their bank details.
- He explained that fraud schemes often involve victims making upfront payments, only to lose their money and sometimes their identities.
- According to Olofin, some fraud victims have unknowingly participated in crimes like money laundering because their accounts were used for illicit transactions, resulting in legal troubles for them.
“Fraudsters do a lot of things. They structure funds. They know how internal systems work,” he noted.
Babatunde also mentioned that in some cases, victims’ identities are stolen, and their accounts are misused for illicit activities such as money laundering, leading to legal complications.
Approach to cybersecurity
- Babatunde disclosed Moniepoint’s collaboration with organizations such as the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to enhance fraud detection and implement sophisticated security controls.
- Highlighting Moniepoint’s preventive measures, he noted that the bank has built a transaction monitoring and anti-money laundering team with advanced internal rules to detect and prevent fraud.
“We’ve built up a transaction monitoring and money laundering team that has set rules internally,” he said.
What you should know
Fraud cases in Nigerian banks have surged significantly, with a 65% increase reported by the Financial Institutions Training Centre (FITC). The number of fraud incidents rose from 11,532 in Q2 2024 to 19,007 in Q3 2024.
- Additionally, the amount involved in fraud attempts skyrocketed to N115.9 billion in Q3, marking a 105% jump from the N56.6 billion recorded in the previous quarter.
- However, banks successfully minimized actual losses, with only N10.1 billion lost to fraud in Q3 2024. This represents a 75.4% decline compared to the N42.8 billion lost in Q2.
Despite this progress, Nigerian banks have cumulatively lost an estimated N53.4 billion to fraud in the first nine months of 2024, underscoring the growing threat of financial crimes and the need for heightened vigilance.