Daily Trust

A renowned Automated Teller Machine (ATM) expert, Dr Douglas Rusell has raised the alarm that cyber fraudsters are continuously investing in new technologies and means to compromise security of the machines to defraud banks and customers of their monies.

Many Nigerians have been defrauded through the use of ATM.
He said there is a growing trend of migration of criminal minded people to Nigeria to deploy these technologies to cheat unsuspecting bank customers of their money through the ATMs.

Dr Rusell who is the Director of DFR Risk Management in the United Kingdom said this while addressing newsmen in Lagos, preparatory to the commencement of a-one week training for Nigerian banks’ staff on ways to mitigate the increasing threat of ATM fraud. The training is organised by MCSI Consulting Ltd, a security and Internet working firm based in Lagos.

He listed some of the sophisticated devices that have been perfected to defraud ATM card users to include, spy cameras, phishing through the Internet, false key pad on the machine’s board, card trapping and many more.
“Criminals don’t have barriers and they move faster across territorial lines than law enforcement agents because they (criminals) don’t have to any official agreement with anyone. The banks and law enforcement need to be up to date with latest technology and methods employed by the criminal elements to be able to reduce their operations,” Dr Rusell said.

He explained that the mobile phones and computer has made it easier for fraudsters to commit crimes more than before, as “they now install hidden surveillance cameras around the machines, as well as use infrared on mobile phones to receive video recording of customers’ entering into the machines” which they later input into blank ATM cards to withdraw the unsuspecting customers. The false key pads are done to fit into the machine’s keyboard which is hardly noticed by the users. The PIN numbers entered by the customers find their way into the hand of the criminals when they remove it later, he said.

These devices, emanating from Eastern Europe are finding their ways into developing countries especially Nigeria, through local collusion he alerted.
He advised banks to get experts to examine the areas of weaknesses of their ATMs and have them corrected through modification. He also called for recording of reported fraudulent transactions, training of security personnel, and quick response to customer complaints as well as prompt deployment of latest technology.

Officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and commercial banks who spoke to Daily Trust yesterday said most banks in the country have migrated to verve card. The verve card has some security features which cannot be easily manipulated by fraudsters.

They said all the banks have now set up an ATM fraud unit that attends to ATM related fraud and problems in line with the CBN directives.

The banks also said that they have embarked on sensitization campaign to enlighten their customers on how to use ATM card.

“The CBN has also helped us by saying we should remove our ATM from obscured places,” a bank staff told Daily Trust.