Nigerian Bank Customers Lose N472 Million To Fraudsters – FITC Reports

Financial Institutions Training Centre (FITC) has revealed that Nigerian citizens operating different bank accounts were at a loss to the tune of N472 million in the first quarter of 2023 only.

The said money was lost to fraudsters. Naija News understands that FITC’s institutional members are members of the Nigerian Banker’s Committee, which comprises the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation and all licensed banks in Nigeria.

In its latest report, FITC noted that there was a total of 12,553 cases of fraudulent transactions within the period under review.

The Q1 data report obtained from the institution’s website showed a decline in losses compared to what was lost to fraudulent banking activities in Q4 2022.

The latest record showed a total of N3.18 billion was lost to fraudsters across banking platforms in Q4 2022, which meant that the losses declined by 85.13 per cent in Q1 2023.

It also said that there was a 79.44 per cent decrease in the total amount involved in fraud cases in Q1 2023 compared to the previous quarter, with a decrease from N12.58bn to N2.59bn.

The total number of fraud cases reported in Q1, 2023, also declined by 14.07 per cent.

According to the report, a total of 12,553 cases were reported in the first quarter of this year compared with 14,609 cases recorded in the preceding quarter.

It was also noted that fraud occurred mostly through mobile, computer/web, and PoS, which was consistent with the trend from the previous quarter.

“For Q1 2023 under review, an analysis of the magnitude-based ranking of fraud categories shows that mobile fraud has the highest ranking which accounts for N1.1bn (42.72 per cent), and this is followed by the computer/web fraud category at N646m (24.99 per cent). This was followed by PoS fraud at N450m (17.41 per cent) and fraudulent withdrawals at N139m (5.36 per cent),” the report noted.

From the total amount lost in Q1, 2023, the data also revealed that mobile fraud accounted for 34.07 per cent at N161m followed by computer/web fraud accounting for 27.69 per cent at N130m and fraudulent withdrawals representing 24.72 per cent at N116m.