Rising cases of electronic frauds, especially
Automated Teller Machine-related scams,
which have made Deposit Money Banks to
lose billions of naira in recent times, have
forced some of the lenders to prevent their
payments cards from working in the United
States of America, China and a few other
countries.
It was gathered that the banks took the action
following the huge amount they were
spending in refunding customers who had lost
money in payment cards related frauds.
“A number of banks decided to deactivate
their payment cards from working in the USA,
China and a few other countries that are still
using magnetic stripe instead of the chip and
PIN,” a top bank official said.
“The decision was caused by the rising cases
of fraudsters using cloned Nigerian ATM cards
to make transactions at shopping in malls in
the USA and China,” he added.
Apart from fraudsters using cloned payment
cards issued by Nigerian banks to buy goods
abroad, it was gathered that some of the
payment cards had also been used to
withdraw money from ATMs in foreign
countries, especially in the US.
“This scam has been on for a very long time
but it has reduced drastically since some
banks decided to deactivate their payment
cards from working overseas.
However, what
we have done as a bank is to tell our
customers to inform us whenever they are
travelling overseas so that we can activate
their payment cards to work overseas. Once
they tell us, we will activate it,” the banker
explained.
The development had forced top executives of
the banks and senior officials of the CBN to
meet with the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission sometime last year.
Following the meeting, the EFCC was said to
have commenced the process of collaborating
with sister agencies in the US to effect the
arrest of some of the fraudsters.
When contacted on Sunday about the
deactivation of payment cards from working
overseas, the Chairman, Committee of E-
Banking Industry Heads, Mr. Tunde Kuponiyi,
said banks had deployed a number of
technologies to stem the tide of electronic
frauds, including payment card related frauds.
He said millions of naira had been spent to
deploy the electronic payment technologies,
adding that the rate of e-frauds had gone
down drastically in recent times following
such moves.
He, however, was silent on whether some
banks had deactivated their payments cards
from working overseas unless informed by
their customers travelling abroad.
The Chairman, Chartered Institute of Bankers
of Nigeria, Lagos State Branch, Mr. Abolade
Agbola, had emphasised the need for the CBN
to fast-track the biometric registration of bank
customers as a way of checking electronic
fraud.
He said, “There is no justification for it
(deactivation of ATM cards); and what that
will do is that people will limit the amount of
money or specify the kind of account they
expose to online transactions.
“I think the CBN is also insisting that when
this issue has happened, it must be resolved
speedily so that confidence will not be lost.
And that is one of the reasons why banks will
keep on changing their software to make it
safer; and, of course, that is also one of the
reasons the issue of national identity card
needs to be fast-tracked, which is at the
government level.”
The President, Institute of Chartered
Accountants of Nigeria, Mr. Chidi Ajaegbu,
said the CBN had achieved a lot in the
cashless drive but there was a need to
continue to build public confidence in the
electronic means of payments.
“If we are striving to become a 24-hour
economy, then we must have the necessary
controls in place to build people’s confidence
in the cashless policy we are driving.
And
part of this is making sure that people believe
that their liquid assets and details are secure.
It is the key to the 24-hour economy we are
driving towards,” he said.
The General Manager, Visa West Africa, Mr.
Ade Ashaye, noted that the type of card used
in the US might be prone to fraud.
He, however, said the development could be
mitigated by new technologies.
No comments: