Fraudsters Stole N472M From Bank Customers in Three Months - FITC

According to a FITC report, bank customers in Nigeria lost N472 million to fraud in Q1 2023. It was also revealed that a total of 12,553 incidences of fraud were documented over this time period. This was according to the Q1 report received on the FITC website.

The Nigerian Bankers Committee, which includes the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, and all licensed banks in Nigeria, includes FITC institutional members.

However, the statistics revealed a decrease in losses as compared to what was lost due to fraudulent financial operations in Q4, 2022.

According to FITC, a total of N3.18 billion was lost to fraudsters across financial systems in Q4 2022, representing an 85.13% decrease in losses in Q1 2023.

According to FITC statistics, the total amount involved in fraud cases decreased by 79.44% in Q1 2023 compared to the previous quarter, falling from N12.58bn to N2.59bn.

In addition, the overall number of fraud instances reported in Q1 2023 decreased by 14.07%.

According to the data, 12,553 instances were reported in the first quarter of this year, compared to 14,609 cases in the previous quarter.

It was also highlighted that the majority of fraud happened via mobile, computer/web, and PoS, which was similar to the previous quarter's pattern.

According to the research, "For Q1 2023 under review, an analysis of the magnitude-based ranking of fraud categories shows that mobile fraud has the highest ranking, accounting for N1.1bn (42.72%), followed by the computer/web fraud category at N646m (24.99%)." This was followed by N450m (17.41%) in PoS fraud and N139m (5.36%) in fraudulent withdrawals."

The statistics also indicated that mobile fraud accounted for 34.07 percent of the total money lost in Q1, 2023, at N161 million, followed by computer/web fraud at 27.69 percent at N130 million, and fraudulent withdrawals at 24.72 percent at N116 million.