Bank customers in Nigeria lost a total of N472 million to fraudsters in the first quarter of this year, according to a report on banking fraud and forgeries released by FITC.
FITC, a not-for-profit professional organization comprising members from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), and all licensed banks in Nigeria, disclosed the figures.
The report highlighted a decline in losses compared to the previous quarter’s fraudulent banking activities. In Q4 2022, a total of N3.18 billion was lost to fraudsters across various banking platforms, indicating an 85.13% decrease in losses during Q1 2023.
Moreover, the data from FITC revealed a 79.44% reduction in the total amount involved in fraud cases during Q1 2023 compared to the preceding quarter. The sum decreased from N12.58 billion to N2.59 billion.
Additionally, the total number of fraud cases reported in Q1 2023 declined by 14.07%. The report indicated that 12,553 cases were reported in the first quarter of this year, compared to 14,609 cases recorded in the previous quarter.
The data for Q1 2023 also revealed that mobile, computer/web, and point-of-sale (PoS) transactions were the top three channels with the highest number of fraud occurrences, consistent with the previous quarter.
“An analysis of the magnitude-based ranking of fraud categories for Q1 2023 shows that Mobile Fraud has the highest ranking, accounting for N1.1 billion (42.72%), followed by the Computer/Web fraud category at N646 million (24.99%). This was followed by POS Fraud at N450 million (17.41%) and fraudulent withdrawals at N139 million (5.36%),” stated FITC in the report.
The data further indicates that mobile fraud accounted for 34.07% (N161 million) of the total amount lost in Q1 2023, while computer/web fraud represented 27.69% (N130 million), and fraudulent withdrawals accounted for 24.72% (N116 million).
