Mobile, web payment channels most vulnerable to fraud attacks — FITC

Computer/web fraud, mobile fraud, and Point-of-Sale (PoS) related fraud were the most prevalent forms of payment channels vulnerable to fraud attacks in the first quarter of 2024.

The Financial Institutions Training Centre (FITC) disclosed this in its latest report on fraud and forgeries in the Nigerian banking sector for Q1 2024.

According to the report, mobile fraud had the highest ranking, accounting for N768.84 million (25.73 percent) of the total amount, followed by Computer/Web fraud at N680.75 million (22.78 percent), and POS Fraud which came next at (18.93 percent).

“In the first quarter of 2024, cards were the only instrument for fraud that recorded an increase, while the use of cheques and cash recorded relatively lower fraudulent activities when compared to the previous quarter.

“Specifically, there was a 31.12 percent rise in fraud cases through the POS Channel, rising from 2,683 cases in Q4 2023 to 3,518 cases in QI 2024. Similarly, the number of fraud cases through the Mobile Channel increased by 0.45 percent, rising from 3173 cases in Q4 2023 to 3393 cases in Ql 2024,” FITC said.

However, the report said banks’ losses to fraud declined by 77.62 percent to N468.42 million in the first quarter of 2024 from N2.09 billion in the last quarter of 2023 because of improved measures from financial institutions.

FITC stated, “The F&F report for Q1 2024 shows a significant decline in at least 60 percent of the areas measured when compared to the Q4 2023 report, and this is a welcome development.

“We need to understudy fraud control activities in this quarter and improve upon the same to ensure that going forward, the numbers keep dropping while also implementing continuous vigilance and proactive measures.”

Meanwhile, 35 staff appointments were terminated in Q1 2024, significantly higher than in Q4 2023, where staff terminations were only recorded for nine cases.

“Banks need to ensure the application of advanced fraud detection technologies and analytics to continuously monitor transactions of suspicious patterns and anomalies,” it added.