The review titled ‘Reports on Frauds and Forgeries in Nigerian Banks’ published by the Financial Institutions Training Centre, (FITC) also showed that a total of 12,553 fraud cases were reported within this period.
The figure represents a 14.07% decrease in total reported fraud cases when compared with 14,609 cases recorded in the last quarter of 2022.
The FITC team include members of the Nigerian Banker’s Committee, made up of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) and all licensed banks in Nigeria.
Mobile transactions led to the mode of transactions where most of the fraudulent activities transpired, followed by computer/web fraud and Point of Sale (PoS) related transactions. These were the top three transaction types with the highest number of occurrences.
Mobile fraud accounted for 34.07% (₦161 million) of the total amount lost to fraud. This was followed by Computer/web fraud which accounted for 27.69% (₦130 million) while fraudulent withdrawals represented 24.72% at ₦116 million.
According to the data, the total amount involved in fraud cases in Q1 2023 recorded a 79.44% decrease when compared to the previous quarter - Q4, 2022.
In the last quarter of 2022, the total amount decreased from ₦12.58 billion to ₦2.59 billion in Q1, 2023. Also, there was a decrease in the total amount lost to fraudsters as the figure reduced from ₦3.18 billion in Q4 2022 to ₦472 million in Q1 2023 representing an 85.13% decrease.
During the period under review, it was observed during an analysis of the magnitude-based ranking of fraud categories that about 42.7% of the total fraud came via Mobile Fraud as it accounted for the highest-ranking fraud source with a loss of ₦1.1 billion (42.72%).
The Computer/Web-based fraud category came next accounting for ₦646 million (24.99%). The PoS Fraud was least on the list recording a total loss of ₦450 million (17.41% ) while ₦139 million (5.36 per cent) was lost through fraudulent withdrawals.
More analysis from the report also showed that the number of outsiders Involved in bank fraud in Q4, 2022 was 13,436, while the number involved in Q1, 2023 was 12,351 indicating an 8.08% decline.
The number of Insider (Staff) Involvement in Q4, 2022 was recorded as 38 while the number of insider involvement recorded in Q1, 2023 was 72 thus indicating a spike of 89.47% in insider jobs.
As a result of the fraud-related investigations carried out, 12 appointments were terminated in Q4, 2022 while 15 appointments were terminated in Q1, 2023.
A summary of the report revealed that in Q1, 2023, the majority of fraud activities were carried out via channels like ATMs, Web, and Mobile Banking Platforms (including the USSD & e-Naira channel), Bank branches, and PoS terminals.
It was also shown that cash and card were the highest instruments used for fraud while cheques were the least used in fraud activities.