By Uzair Adam Imam
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) advised the general public to be more security conscious in protecting their personal and financial information.
EFCC said fraudsters use peoples’ personal and financial information like ATM cards, PINs, BVN, NIN and mobile phones to steal money.
Aliyu Yunusa, the Sokoto zonal head of the agency, made this disclosure while speaking with newsmen on Wednesday.
Yunusa spoke about the increase in ATM-related fraud in Sokoto and identified two major methods for perpetrating such fraud.
The first method, he said, was “ATM Swap which usually occurs when unsuspecting victims visit the ATM machine or POS terminals where the scammers lurk around looking for prospective victims that may require their help in using the ATM.
“The suspects usually offer to help the victims in operating the ATM and, in the process, swap the card with a dormant ATM card from the same bank.
“After swapping the victim’s card and memorizing his/her pin, the fraudster will simply shrug it off as a temporary network issue and return the already swapped card to the victim while he walks away with the victim’s ATM card.
“The same fraudster will visit another ATM stand at a later time to comfortably withdraw all the money in the victim’s account or transfer all the savings of the victim to another account,” he said
The second method, according to him, was “Mobile Phone Theft”.
“In this instance, the stolen mobile phone is usually sold to fraudsters who will, in turn, use Unstructured Supplementary Service Data, popularly known as USSD, to get your bank details from a simple code.
“It helps them know where your bank account is domiciled, but to the novice fraudster, he may try every bank’s USSD code until he becomes successful.
“Then use your banks USSID code. They will transfer the content of your account to another bank account, usually of a victim whose card and pin are in their possession,” he said.
Yunusa then advised individuals whose phones were stolen to rush to the nearest branch of their banks to block their accounts.
