The Financial and Monetary Crimes Fee (EFCC) has mentioned it’s at present engaged on serving to six Nigerian banks get better billions of Naira stolen by hackers, who gained entry to the banks’ techniques.
Chairman of the Fee, Mr. Ola Olukoyede, disclosed this throughout an interview on TVC on Sunday.
Whereas declining to say the affected banks to guard their picture, the EFCC boss indicated that main banks have been concerned.
“As I’m speaking to you, we have now about six banks—I cannot point out names due to their picture—which were hacked into by younger folks,” Olukoyede disclosed.
In accordance with the EFCC boss, the Fee has been in a position to get better over N9 billion for one of many banks. “This can be a main bank,” he added.
“For one more one, we’ve been in a position to save about N6 billion,” he mentioned.
Banks’ workers concerned
Olukoyede famous that the fraud couldn’t have occurred with out the involvement of the banks’ workers, who connived with the hackers.
He defined that the hackers used units, which they plugged into the bank’s techniques, to perpetrate the heinous act.
“They really do it with the insiders, the bank workers. They’ll plug the system into their platform, wherever the opposite individual is, even when he’s outdoors Nigeria, he’ll have the ability to management the platform of the bank.
“So, from there, wherever, whether or not it’s in Jap Europe or America, he can transfer cash. He can transfer billions in seconds simply the way in which your bank account officer can transfer your cash out and in of your account,” the EFCC Chairman mentioned.
- He added that whereas the hackers might not have the ability to transfer the cash out utterly, they’ll distribute it to accounts of many shoppers.
- He mentioned additionally they transfer cash to wallets or to POS, and from there, they withdraw the cash and disappear.
“So many banks are weak as I’m speaking to you now. However that won’t have been doable with out the connivance of the bank workers,” he emphasised.
Why EFCC is intervening
Olukoyede mentioned the anti-graft company is listening to the fraud in banks due to its influence on the economic system.
In accordance with him, the company has been doing so much in that space and never speaking about it so as to not get Nigerians panicky, which can result in mass withdrawal from the affected banks.
“It’s not the fault of the bank, however it’s the fault of the workers of the bank, a number of the workers. And that’s why we have now informed the bank executives, look inwards.
“There isn’t a approach this act may very well be carried out efficiently with out the connivance of your workers. In all of the instances we have now seen, we’ve all the time seen the hand of bank workers,” he mentioned.
What you must know
Nairametrics lately reported that Nigerian banks misplaced N52.26 billion to fraud in 2024, primarily based on knowledge launched by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS).
- The info confirmed a major improve of N34.59 billion in comparison with the N17.67 billion recorded in 2023.
- In accordance with the most recent report, the quantity misplaced to fraud has elevated by 196% over the previous 5 years, in parallel with the expansion of monetary transactions within the digital funds sector.
- Though the annual fraud rely reported decreased by 31%, from 101,624 in 2020 to 70,111 in 2024, the quantity misplaced to fraud grew by 350%, rising from N11.61 billion to N52.26 billion throughout the similar interval.
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