Responding to this concerning trend, the Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF) has emphasized the need for novel measures and enhanced collaboration to combat the escalating cases of electronic fraud.
To address this issue, NeFF, overseen by the Central Bank of Nigeria, convened for its third quarter general meeting, centering on the theme of "New Strategies for Combating e-Fraud in a Cashless Environment."
During the meeting, Premier Oiwoh, the Managing Director of Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), highlighted the disturbing surge in e-fraud instances, notably through betting platforms.
Represented by the Chief Risk Officer NIBBS, Temidayo Adekanye, he commented, "Recently, we had the cashless policies from CBN, which was incurring a dramatic increase in the volume of transactions in the industry which variably as the impact of the volume of fraud in the industry itself.
Now, the increased efficiency has also meant that fraud has dramatically increased across the industry." He pointed out that in the first quarter of 2023, the reported fraud through the industry forum portal stood at N5.1 billion.
Reflecting on the five-year fraud trend, he stated, "For fraud trends over the last five years, in 2019, we’re looking at about N3 billion and currently 2023, we are looking at about N9.5 billion to date.
Fraud losses have increased dramatically over the last five years." Adekanye further illustrated the recent upward trajectory, with a 39 percent increase between June and July, culminating in actual fraud losses of N1.2 billion in July 2023. This marked a 54 percent surge over the period.
Adekanye highlighted betting platforms as the primary channels for fraudulent activities. He emphasized that once funds enter betting platforms, wallet accounts, or even POS agents, recovering the money becomes nearly impossible, leading to recovery rates as low as five percent across the industry. He emphasized the need to identify such risky channels, including betting and wallet accounts, POS agents, cryptocurrency accounts, and various types of purchases.
