1.MY ADVICE TURN OFF INTERNET BANKING ON YOUR ACCOUNT !
2.ATM Withdrawals Have one account for only Daily transactions of minimal amounts
Customers have expressed dissatisfaction in the manner in which some banks have been handling reported fraud cases on internet banking and Automated Teller Machines (ATM).
Tochukwu Onyiuke, a lawyer at Punuka Attorneys & Solicitors, said of the over 1,000 internet banking fraud and ATM scam cases his firm is handling, “none of the banks involved has shown genuine interest in rendering assistance to the victims.”
Mr. Onyiuke said many of these victims are customers of Intercontinental Bank, Bank PHB, and Union Bank.
Moses Adeogun, a postgraduate student in a university in the United Kingdom and an Intercontinental customer, recently narrated how he lost all his savings of N429, 000 in the bank to online fraud.
“On Tuesday, 27 July, I just discovered that all my savings at Intercontinental Bank to the tune of N429, 000 had been stolen through internet banking,” said Mr. Adeogun.
“I have two accounts at the bank, one is current and the other is savings. I have been using these two accounts since 2008. I activated internet banking on both of them so that I can have access to my accounts while I am away for studies,” Mr. Adeogun said.
He said, “It happened that I was trying to log into my account on 27 June; a Sunday night, but I couldn’t. So I kept on trying until the account was locked. I then sent a mail to the internet banking office that my access has been locked.. The following day, I got a message from the office that my account has been unlocked. That was on Monday, 28th of June.”
However, he said that on 4 July, somebody transferred N100, 000 from his account to another person’s account named Olufunmi Olusanya. Two days later, another N100, 000 was removed. It went on until the last N29, 000 was removed on the July 14.
Mr. Adeogun said while all these was happening, he didn’t receive any alert from the bank as he usually do on any transaction. He said he didn’t touch his account after it was unlocked until July 27 when he tried to confirm his statement of account after transferring money into it that he discovered all his money had gone. “I have mailed the bank severally since it happened but all I get from them is we are investigating. I was hoping that the matter would be resolved on time so that I can use my money. But as it stands, the bank is only dragging the issue,” he said.
Pushing blames
Experts say the perpetrator must have had access to Mr. Adeogun’s username, password and transaction code -the three details needed in internet banking -before money could be successfully transferred from his account.
Meanwhile, the victim said he never disclosed any of those information to anyone as “all these details are only known by me and the internet banking office.”
Findings revealed that the Olufunmi Olusanya’s account belongs to a female youth corps member. A transaction was made from Mr. Adeogun’s account to hers and she later withdrew the money through an ATM.
However, Mr. Onyiuke said how fraudsters managed to get into people’s accounts through internet banking is a question banks should answer since the position of law says “banks have a mandatory duty to protect customer’s fund.”
The legal practitioner said banks are to protect their customers’ money by ensuring that there is no manipulation on customers’ account or unauthorised withdrawal. “In the event that customer losses money, or occasions that the bank fails to protect the fund, the customer can bring a legal action of a breach of contract against the bank,” he said.
“Banks in Nigeria are fond of pushing blames to the customers even before investigating. Banks always claim that the customers compromised their passwords. But most times, we have discovered through investigations, that the claims were false,” said Mr. Onyiuke
Contacted over Mr Adeogun’s allegation, after several phone calls and electronic mails to the Intercontinental Bank went unreturned, Bridget Chinasa, a receptionist at the bank front office who tried to cover her name tag, said a reporter cannot speak to any official in the bank’s Corporate Communication office since no appointment was made. “Just keep trying the office number to book an appointment,” Ms. Chinasa said.
Suspicious move
Meanwhile, Mr. Adeogun said he suspects insider abuse. “I really believe that she (Ms. Olusanya) colluded with someone at the Internet banking office to get into my account for the reasons being that the person who unlocked my access on the 28th of June failed to attach his or her name,” he said, adding that “most times when I receive messages from the bank, there is usually the name of the sender attached to the message. But the message I got after unlocking my access just read: Good day, your account has been unlocked now. Thanks. Internet Banking Unit, Web Services/I-Mobile Dept., Intercontinental Bank Plc... Happy Customer Happy Bank.”
Another suspicious act, according to Mr. Adeogun, was that the perpetrator disabled the alert on his transaction so that he won’t get any message while the theft was going on. “All these can only be done by an insider with priority access,” he said.
Last October, at a consumer advocacy forum, Akeem Awe, a business man and a customer of Zenith Bank, also shared his experience on how he lost his savings of v1. 06 million to an ATM fraudster in less than 20 minutes, and how the bank failed to fully investigate the matter.
