Businesses in Nigeria have been cautioned by cybersecurity experts to prepare for a spike in Cybercrime activity, which is typically more common from September to December, as per reports. The caution was made known during a webinar with the theme “Social Media Savvy: Protecting Yourself from Online Fraud”. They elaborated that as the holiday shopping season draws near, hackers will probably take advantage of the increased volume of online transactions, raising the risk of ransomware, phishing attempts, fraudulent activity, and data breaches.
Nigerian firms, especially small and medium-sized organizations (SMEs), were advised to further strengthen their cybersecurity defenses against the escalating threat. FirstBank’s Chief Information Security Officer, Mr. Harrison Nnaji, described the many tactics used by hackers as well as the steps taken to prevent the general people from losing money to online criminals. He addressed the technical terms of Cyber Security and online fraud, as well as the best practices for Social Media safety, frequent forms of online Fraud on social media, and what to do in the event that an account is compromised.
Company owners advised use two factor authentication.
Nnaji advised against having too many platforms and revealing excessive data on social media, stating that having two or three social media handles should be sufficient. He forewarned against free products, which typically served as a bait for victims, and added that frauds will persist unless people take action to prevent malicious activity. The manager and Data Protection officer of Digital Encode Ltd.’s information security and governance, risk, and control advisory, Ifeoma Okoh, also gave a speech during which she described how cybercriminals adapt to new technology.
Ifeoma mentioned a number of popular fraudulent activities, such as those involving investments, dating, employment, prizes and lotteries, account takeover, phishing, clickjacking, and social engineering. She recommended that company owners use two factor authentication on all social media accounts and constantly verify links to ensure that they are not spoofing or email scams. Ifeoma further warned Nigerians against responding to requests that seem too urgent and encouraged for prompt and routine device updates, knowledge-updating learning and active account management on social media.
Banks lost ₦2.09bn overall in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Moreover, the cybersecurity notion that there is a seasonal increase in fraud in the last quarters for Nigerian banks was further validated by data gathered from a report by the Financial Institutions Training Center (FITC). For example, according to FITC data, Nigerian banks lost ₦2.09 billion overall in Q4 2023—a 77.58% increase over the ₦1.18 billion the banks lost in Q3 2023. The report titled “Report on Frauds and Forgeries in Nigerian Banks”, further disclosed that 12,405 fraud instances in total were reported in Q4 2023. This indicates a 2.81% increase over the 12,066 instances reported in Q3.
Total number of fraud and forgeries cases reported for the fourth quarter of 2022 was estimated at 14,609. According to the data, the total amount reported to be involved in fraud cases grew from ₦9.62 billion in Q3 2022 to ₦12.58 billion in Q4 2022, a 23.53 percent rise. Computer/Web Fraud has the highest ranking in Q4 2022, accounting for ₦10.6 billion (84.25 percent), according to a review of the magnitude-based ranking of fraud categories. Mobile fraud comes in second at ₦939 million (7.47 percent). POS Fraud came next, accounting for ₦369 million at 2.93 percent.
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In the fourth quarter of 2021, a total of 26,566 occurrences of fraud and forgeries were reported. The most common forms of fraud seen during the periods were ATM withdrawal fraud, mobile banking fraud, and computer/web fraud. FITC has advised banks to make sure that sophisticated fraud detection Technology and analytics are applied in order to perpetually track transactions for suspicious trends and anomalies. Nevertheless, it added that it is imperative that financial institutions adhere to regulatory norms, implement clear decision-making procedures, and take ethical issues into account while using these technological innovations.