Fraudsters attack 28 banks and steal 42.6 billion Naira via PoS, ATMs and other

• Nigerian commercial banks lost 42.6 billion Naira between April and June this year due to fraud and counterfeiting
• The amount lost in the second quarter of 2024 alone exceeds the total amount lost to banking fraud in 2023
• The largest losses were caused by “miscellaneous and other frauds”, totaling 41.14 billion Naira.

Legit.ng journalist Zainab Iwayemi has over three years of experience covering business, technology and capital markets.

A recent survey has revealed that Nigerian commercial banks lost a total of 42.6 billion naira to fraud and counterfeiting over the three months from April to June this year.

The total amount lost to banking fraud in 2023 was surpassed by the loss in the second quarter of 2024 alone. In total, banks lost 9.4 billion naira in 2023.

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The Financial Institutions Training Center announced this in its fraud and counterfeiting report for the second quarter of 2024, published on Saturday, and noted an increase in fraudulent activities in banking networks.

The FITC report is based on information on fraud and forgery cases obtained from 28 depository institutions across the country.

An analysis of FITC’s data revealed that the second quarter loss represents an 8,993% increase in loss compared to the N468.4 million reported in the first quarter of 2024. This is also a 637% increase from the N5.7 billion loss reported in the second quarter of 2023.

According to a Businessday report from FITC, the biggest loss was caused by “various and other types of fraud,” which accounted for 41.14 billion naira or 96.46 percent of the total loss.

Next came losses from fraudulent withdrawals and computer/web fraud totalling nearly N781.2 million and N400.7 million respectively.

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According to the study, there was a staggering 1,784% increase in the total amount of fraud cases between the first and second quarters of 2024, rising from 2.9 billion naira to almost 56.3 billion naira in the second quarter.

In the second quarter of 2024, fraudulent activities were carried out through a number of channels, including point-of-sale terminals, bank branches, ATMs, and internet platforms such as web and mobile banking.

One of the instruments with the largest decline was card fraud, which fell by 47.66% from 21,469 in the first quarter to 11,237 in the second quarter.

On the other hand, there was an increase of 36.67% and 9.09% in fraudulent activities related to cheques and cash, respectively. The number of cases related to cheques increased from 30 in the first quarter to 41 in the second quarter, while the number of cases related to cash increased from 209 in the first quarter to 228 in the second quarter.

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Between 2023 and 2024, approximately 10.7 billion naira in fraud losses were reported in the Nigerian banking sector.

Data from the Financial Institutions Training Centre (FITC) show that there were approximately 318 cases of collusion between employees in Nigerian banks during the study period.

Source: Legit.ng