A large number of Automated Teller
Machines located in some posh areas of Lagos like Victoria Island, Lekki
Peninsula Phase I and II, and Ikoyi have been attacked by hackers and
electronic fraudsters, it has been learnt.
The hackers are said to be fixing small
fraud tools on the ATMs in order to harvest the passwords of cardholders
who come to collect cash or do some other transactions on the machines.
Top bank officials privy to the
development said a number of banks had deployed detectives to monitor
their ATMs in those locations, especially in the Victoria Island and
Lekki axis.
Continue reading after the cut....
A banker told our correspondent, “A
number of the ATMs in Victoria Island and Lekki axis have been
compromised by hackers. Some of these fraudsters visit those ATMs very
late in the night or very early in the morning to fix some fraud devices
on them, which are capable of collecting cardholders’ information,
including their passwords.
“They come back later to remove those
devices. The information collected is then used to commit fraud against
those customers later.
“Most of us (banks) are aware of the
development and we are very vigilant now. What some of us have done is
to get a patrol team of security men to start combing the affected areas
and the ATMs from time to time. We will get those guys soon.”
While some of the cardholders’
information collected by the fraudsters were being used to commit
online-related frauds locally, a large number was used to clone ATM
cards and used to shop in malls abroad, especially in the United States
of America, bankers told our correspondent.
The Vice-Chairman, Committee of e-Banking Industry Heads, Mr. Dele Adeyinka, confirmed the fraudsters’ activities.
He, however, said that following the
banks’compliance with the CBN directive asking them to install
anti-skimming devices on their ATMs, it would be difficult for the
fraudters’ devices to work.
He said, “Yes, it is true that hackers
are carrying out those activities. It is not only in Victoria Island
axis, they are doing it everywhere. But all the banks have complied with
the CBN directive on anti-fraud tools. So, it will be difficult for
those fraud devices to work.”
Rising cases of electronic frauds,
especially ATM-related scams, which have made Nigerian banks to lose
billions of naira in recent times, have forced some lenders to prevent
their payments cards from working in the US, China and a few other
countries.
According to Central Bank of Nigeria statistics, the banks lost N40bn to electronic frauds in 2013 alone.
On January 19, 2015, the CBN ordered
banks in the country to prevent payment cards (debit and credit) issued
by them from working in fraud-prone countries, including the US, South
Africa and China.
The central bank also said that banks
would be liable for frauds committed abroad using cloned cards belonging
to their customers.
The CBN said in a circular that from
February 1, 2015, all the banks in the country must stop the payment/ATM
cards from working in non-Europay, MasterCard and Visa countries.
It directed the banks to only activate
the cards when customers to whom the cards had been issued were
travelling abroad and this should only be for the period that the
customers would spend overseas.
The circular, signed by the Director,
Banking and Payment System, CBN, Mr. Dipo Fatokun, read in part, “The
occurrence of card present frauds in non-EMV environments is on the
increase, especially when international hybrid cards issued by Nigerian
banks are used in non-EMV environments like the USA.
“It has, therefore, become necessary for
the CBN to issue the following directives and that all DMBs should do
the following: collate all their card frauds abroad and send to the CBN
not later than January 30, 2015; subsequently, all data on card frauds
occurring abroad should be rendered on the NIBSS fraud portal; implement
anti-fraud solution on their card management systems not later than
January 30, 2015; ensure that from February 1, 2015, only customers that
expressly indicated the intention of travelling to non-EMV
jurisdictions would have their cards default to the magnetic stripe and
for the period indicated by the cardholder only.”
Prior to the deactivation of the payment
cards from working overseas, one of the ‘systemically important banks’
made refunds in excess of N200m in 2014, The PUNCH had reported
exclusively.
The PUNCH had in August last year also
exclusively reported that electronic fraudsters had been duplicating
payment cards belonging to Nigerian bank customers and using them to buy
items worth millions of dollars from shopping malls in the US.
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 in order to stem the
tide.
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 frauds.
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 payment.
-Punch
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