Fraudsters duplicate Nigerian ATM Cards and Shop Abroad

Facts emerged on Tuesday that electronic fraudsters had been duplicating Automated Teller Machine cards belonging to Nigerian bank customers and using them to buy items worth millions of dollars from shopping malls in the United States.

Top officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria told said, the development had made Nigerian banks and their customers to be losing millions of naira to the e-fraud.

The development, it was learnt, had become so overwhelming and that top executives of the banks and senior officials of the CBN had to meet with a team of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission operatives led by the director of operations in Abuja on Tuesday.

According to sources close to the meeting, the banks are seeking the assistance of the anti-graft agency to help in arresting some of the fraudsters who are using the duplicated ATM cards in the US.

From the outcome of the meeting, the EFCC is set to collaborate with a sister agency in the US in order to effect the arrest of some of the electronic fraudsters.

The source disclosed, “Banks have been losing a lot of money to electronic fraudster cartels who are using customers’ ATM cards to fraudulently buy items across shopping malls in the US.

“Normally, customers should bear the loss but because banks don’t want the issue to come to the public so that the use of ATM cards will not be discouraged, they settle those customers by paying the money.”

Asked how the Nigerian ATM cards are being duplicated and used in the US, a source close to the development explained, “In Nigeria, we use chip and PIN, but the US still uses magnetic stripe. So, what those fraudsters do is to get the details of a customers’ ATM card, duplicate it and then go to shopping malls and start using it to buy items.

“When they are using the PoS in US shopping malls, all they do is to swipe the card and then payment is made. They don’t need to put any PIN. Through these, items are bought using Nigerian ATM cards.”

An EFCC source, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, confirmed the meeting and noted the anti-graft agency was set to work with the US government to arrest the fraudsters.

A top official in one of the top banks said the incidence of electronic frauds had been on the increase and the development was a source of worry to bank executives.

It was learnt that most of the frauds were being perpetrated in connivance with some bank officials.

The official recalled that prior to 2010 when Nigerian banks were still using magnetic stripe for ATM cards; the issue of using Nigerian ATM cards fraudulently abroad was prevalent.