Nigeria Content Online

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.