An innovation and research firm FITC, has reported that fraudulent activities has cost Nigerian bank customers N472 million in the first three months of 2023.Additionally, it was revealed that 12,553 fraud incidents in total were reported throughout this time.This was according to the Q1 report that The PUNCH downloaded from the FITC website.

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The Central Bank of Nigeria, the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, and all licensed banks in Nigeria are members of the Nigerian Banker's Committee, which also includes FITC's institutional members.FITC's data indicates a significant decrease in losses when compared to fraudulent banking activities in Q4 2022. In that quarter, a total of N3.18 billion was lost to fraudsters across banking platforms.

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However, in Q1 2023, the losses reduced by 85.13 percent.The report from FITC also highlights a considerable decrease in the total amount involved in fraud cases in Q1 2023 compared to the previous quarter. The amount decreased by 79.44 percent, declining from N12.58 billion to N2.59 billion.Furthermore, the total number of reported fraud cases in Q1 2023 decreased by 14.07 percent.

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A total of 12,553 cases were reported in the first quarter of the year, compared to 14,609 cases in the preceding quarter.The report also notes that the most common avenues for fraud were mobile, computer/web, and Point of Sale (PoS) transactions. This trend aligns with the pattern observed in the previous quarter.

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“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 indicated.

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The statistics also showed that, of the total amount lost in Q1, 2023, mobile fraud accounted for 34.07 percent at N161 million, followed by computer/web fraud at N130 million and fraudulent withdrawals at N116 million.

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