NCC, CBN, police move to fight e-fraud
Director, Consumer Affairs Bureau, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Felicia Onwuegbuchulam (left); Deputy Governor, Operations, Central bank of Nigeria (CBN), Folashodun Shonubi; Executive Vice Chairman/CEO, NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta; Executive Secretary Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof. Bola Owasanoye, and Executive Commissioner Stakeholders Management, NCC, Sunday Dare, during the Stakeholders Forum on Financial Fraud Using Telecoms Platform at the Transcorp Hilton hotel Abuja.
The Federal Government is to develop a roadmap that would be used to curb the menace of financial fraud using telecoms/electronic platforms.
Also, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), is working with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigeria Police, and other relevant agencies to fight electronic e-banking fraud.
Speaking at a stakeholders’ forum on financial fraud using the telecoms platform, Wednesday in Abuja, Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, said the incidence of financial fraud using telecom platforms has become pervasive.
He added that apart from leading to the loss of reputation and income, it is also tied to direct financial loss of billions of Naira in the financial services sector, e-commerce, and telecommunications.
Shittu, who decried the high rate of identity theft, said government is putting its full might behind efforts to confront the menace, and to put an end to it. He said: “As a fall out of technological advancement, knowledge has increased and control has become even more complex, creating gaps which are being exploited by miscreants and nefarious individuals always looking to beat the system. Indeed, the financial climate is overhung with deliberate attempts by fraudsters to outsmart erstwhile air-tight measures; hence the need for our deliberations today, the impact of online fraud cannot be underestimated or denied.”
He observed that Africa pioneered the mobile payment sector, but lost intellectual property and leadership in the process, adding that cross border transactions heavily rely on external costly platforms.
Also speaking, Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, said the malevolent use of technology has become a growing concern in the industry, especially in the era of financial fraud.He observed that mobile channels have been seized by cyber-criminals as a new avenue for fraud, adding that mobile apps as a whole are now quite easy for hackers and cyber criminals to hijack, making them tools for fraudsters’ credentials, impersonate genuine account holders, and gain illicit access to funds.
“Phishing tactics and social engineering ploys such as the SIM Swap are part and parcel of the online fraud mechanism, regardless of whether the transactions are conducted via mobile phone, desktop browser or point of presence.”Danbatta further noted that, “Despite advances in software technology, human intervention is still required to prevent SIM swap fraud which is difficult to detect. Banks are still trying to find effective ways of identifying when a customer’s mobile number has been fraudulently swapped and ported onto a new device.”
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