A Nigeria Interbank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS) 2014 report, informed that there were 1, 461 cases of fraud last year involving N7.7 billion-attempted value. N6.2 billion was lost to e-fraud.
Customers of some top commercial banks in the Nigeria, including Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB), United Bank for Africa (UBA) and Access Bank, are currently being bombarded with suspecting electronics mails aimed at their daily Internet banking activities, which are purported to have been sent from their respective banks, thus making them vulnerable to cyber attacks.
The fraud is projected to come through several scam mails, technically called phishing, which are being received on a daily basis by customers of some of the banks. Phishing emails try to trick user into revealing some personal information. They claim to come from a legitimate source, such as a reputable bank or large corporation such as Google or Yahoo.
The scam emails are aimed at luring unsuspecting bank customers by asking them to open a link to either update their online banking profile or change their Personal Identification Numbers (PINs).
Speaking on the issue, Google West Africa’s Communications and Public Affairs Manager, Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade, said Phishing emails try to trick people into revealing personal information.
Ogunlade said through phishing, the type of information targeted from customers include; demographic; personally identifiable information (Those that can be used to identify, contact, or locate a person or can be used with other sources to uniquely identify a single individual.
Name, address, phone number, social security, birthday, birthplace, credit card information, account numbers); behavioral (purchasing habits, websites visited, credit card transactions), among others.
The Google Chief, explained that customers information are collected atimes, unknowingly when they provide information to a website; cookies; HTTP header; links clicked; server logs; tracking codes; websites; third-parties (advertisers or service providers); shopping carts; location data; ISP data; web activity; information hi-jacked on unencrypted websites.
Ogunlade further explained that users must verify the real sender of an email in Gmail; click the drop-down next to the “Reply” button; click show original; make sure the “From” address and the “Reply-to” address match and check that the address on the “Message-id” also matches the “From” address domain.
Speaking on the development in an Interview, Executive Secretary, Electronic Payment Providers Association of Nigeria (E-PPAN), Mrs. Regha Onajite, called for increased awareness of the antics of scammers in the nascent electronic payment region.
Onajite urged banks to also invest in customer enlightenment initiative, saying that banks are also liable in some cases, where the customer’s money deposited with them is taken by scammers, depending on the circumstances.
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