Just decided to start this thread to invite contributions from people with tips on how to combat the recent surge in ATM crimes in Nigeria. Recently, a good number of people have been hit by this. The most common cases are issues of withdrawals from remote locations while the card owner still holds on to the card at another location.
Another common form is usage of the cards for Online payments. Of late several people have been receiving emails supposedly from interswitch to update their card details by following a provided link. Those who have been gullible enough to follow it have been "cleaned out" before you could say"Jack Robinson"
Comments and contributions needed please. lets use this thread to sensitise our good people on this menace.

Good thinking, Good thread.

My take is that the banks should be responsible for whatever their clients loose many of these withdraws are sabotage by bank officials, it was recently a female first bank manager was indicted for western union fraud. She was involved in stealing funds wired home by hard working families from abroad.

My problem is arent these banks insured?, if they are why isnt the insurance taking responsibility for the scam they created with introduction of debit/credit cards. In America and other advance country insurance bear the loss. My chase debit card is insured to the tune of $500 for any unauthoriaed purchase or withdraw. What is wrong with Nigerian banks why do everyone like gaming the public. Why should they release same system of payment when they know we are not advanced enough for it, without a crime data base good security camera to pick on thieves who use the ATM and insurance to investigate and pay unauthorized withdraws it makes absolute no sense. Nigerians as u can imagine embraced the system with both hands and now they are at the mercies of smart criminals.
I have had stories of how people where forcefully taken to ATM machines under gun point to withdraw their funds. I have also had a recent story of how some one lost is card and few minutes later they downloaded 80,000 naira from his account this is silly should not be acceptable. This is too much for Nigerians, You guild your life against robbers and trigger happy police men, you protect your expensive phone from robbers, you protect your wallet and now you have to protect your bank card. The technology we have being craving for yrs is now doing damage to us.

Ask your bank if your card is insured against unathorized withdraws and to what tune. If it is not discontinue it immediately and revert to the usual system of cash with a cheque or cash slip. This is the only way out because anyone with access to your card and finish you up even without access to your pin number. Which is not good for a country where people live from goodwill of friends and relatives.

Tho!, I havent experience it yet cos' i keep with happenings in Nigeria, when i get back home, i am reverting to using cheque book or payment slip i m gonna ask my bank to cancel my bank card if the bank wont guarrante insurance to cover withdraws that occur without my knowledge. Also if i must use a phone it will be a #500 naira phone if available so that i can laugh each time it is stolen or lost and replace it with a snap on my fingers. There is no need keeping up with technology in a country that is no ready for technology.

Money is a life line in Nigeria and needs to be guilded by making good decisions not technology showout that often result in pain.

ATM suck to me, so no stress abt it!!

@Da dude!
Guy can we talk on YIM?

actually the banks here in Naija are not doing enough to protect their customers. Most ATMs do not have cameras which would really help in knowing who actually made disputed withdrawals. Rather, they are quick to blame the customer for being careless with his cards/pin number.

I have an insider in a new generation Nigerian bank who confided in me that a staff of her bank was discovered to run a "card cloning" scheme and had cloned and cleaned out accounts of several customers before he was discovered. He was dismissed though, but the bank never admitted responsibility to the public, never compensated the customers who had suffered losses. The issue was hushed!

@ztyle
Yes, we can.

It is sickening to know such happened and the bank couldnt inform the public or trace those that were affected and pay them despite the fact that insurance could have bear the loss, it hurts my heart. This is how Nigerians are fustrated into crimes. And the bank regulators arent looking into ATM fraud. Sulodo thinks his duty is just to create a steady exchange rate.

While I welcome innovation and development with open arms, I also frown upon the lack of security infrastructure that challenges these new technologies.

Fine, we now have ATM machines and online banking. However, with new technologies comes a new set of loopholes and flaws that a new breed of criminals could take advantage of. Question is, what type of security infrastructure do we have in place to tackle them - NONE!

Can we rely on the EFCC?? Please.

Tha dude mentioned being robbed at gun point while at an ATM machine - who is around to protect

Cameras in ATM machine - good, BUT when you do get the fuzzy pictures of the perpertrators, what database do we have to match the faces of the perpertrators with the actual perpetrators? - NONE

As mentioned above, some of these crimes are commited by insiders. Makes sense because when it comes to loss prevention, experts will always tell you that the heavier theft is usually carried out by employees, they have inside information ofcourse. - Well what security measures have banks taken to reduce this risk? - NONE

How about theft through online banking? In countries where security is actually taken seriously, there are sophisticated law enforcement bodies that are dedicated to internet crime. They can pick you up anywhere through IP addresses, GPS coordinates and other means. The infrastructure exists which enables them to do this. Its just like with cell phones and land lines. Each line is registered to a user's name, social security number etc. So if you make a prank call, they can trace you. Do we have this in Nigeria? NO, so criminals can do as they please and get away with murder.

So like I say, I welcome these new technologies, but we lack the security infrastructure to sustain them.

My 2 cents

theres another one known as "over -the -shoulder pin surfing" in which the fraudster queues up behind an unsuspecting target at an ATM machine and he peers over the shoulder of his target as the latter enters his pin number. having seen and memorised the pin number, the fraudster then tries to engage the target in a conversation. this is aimed at having a look at the card in order to memorise the card number.

one may think the card number is too long to be memorised but I tell you its easy. the first 6 digits represent the issuing bank(which the fraudster doesnt need to memorise). the next six represent particular branch of the bank that the card-holder's account is domiciled at and the last 4 represents the account. it is these 4 numbers that fraudster tries to see and memorise, having seen that the card is a GTB card or Zenith card etc as the case may be.

with these details the card is easy cloned and used to clean out the victims account.

Some of them even hang around ATM machines ready to come to the "assistance" of people who obviously have difficulty using the machines, and I tell you this is very common in Nigeria cos ATMs are relatively new. This way its even much easier getting the card details that the method above.

I keep getting these mails claiming to be from one of the atm service providers asking me to update my records to avoid having my account shut down. Out of curiosity I tried to follow the link just to know where it lead. The link text said something like interswitchng.com but the actual anchor lead to a follow of that name residing on a site whose domain was clearly asian.

Now before you shout asian fraudsters, remember that our many yahoo boys relocated to thailand, indonesia, and even china and from there continued their nefarious activities. Only an insider rat could have revealed a bush rat that there's roasted fish in the kitchen.

The message should be sensitization!!

Wellas14:

The message should be sensitization!!

true that
cos even if u put cameras at all the machines it'll just increase costs and of what use will the images be sef?remember we're not in america