Experts have since warned customers to be wary of banks' social media handles they interact with, urging them to ensure they engage only verified accounts on Twitter and Facebook and to check the number of followers of the pages.
Social media represents different things to different people. For some, it is a civic space to exercise freedom of expression, while for others, it is the best place for networking, connecting with colleagues on the other side and socialising with friends.
However, for some individuals, social media is a platform to engage in illicit transactions, including posing as reps of different Nigerian banks to defraud customers desperately in need of assistants.
Mbeka Tony, a Rivers State resident, fell into the hands of one of them, who had posed to be a representative of the United Bank for Africa (UBA) on Facebook.
One day in November 2022, Mr Tony wanted to inquire about his account. He messaged a UBA Facebook page and received an instant response. "I'm Leo, UBA virtual assistant," the page handler responded, listing several ways he could be of help.
Mr Tony believed him and initiated a conversation with him. In minutes, he had revealed sensitive information, including the secret codes to his accounts.
A few moments later, the sum of N158,000 disappeared from his account. He would later go to a UBA branch in the state to complain his deposits had disappeared while he had not initiated the transactions.
But a review of the screenshots of the conversation between him and the fake bank agent showed Mr Tony was unsuspecting of some details. First, the language competence of the ghost bank rep was substandard, and the rush to ask for his secret pin by the agent was suspicious. Second, many banks' emails and social media posts have warned customers that no official would request their private banking or card details.
In 2020, for instance, the UBA issued a press release published across Nigerian online and traditional newspapers, urging customers to be vigilant and stop divulging sensitive data to third parties.
"Some of our customers may have received a call or message asking for their card details and Bank Validation Number (BVN) for disbursement of COVID-19 funds," the press statement reads. "Others may have also received an email informing them of bonuses of between N30,000 and N70,000 upon online validation of their bank details."
"It is important to note that these emails and messages did not originate from UBA, and we would never at any point in time ask for your account details over the telephone or via SMS, emails, live chat or social media. We advise that you kindly delete these messages and do not entertain calls of this nature. Please also inform the bank of these incidents immediately after they occur."
However, it appears that Mr Tony was unaware of the occasional admonition by UBA and other Nigerian banks.
Ibrahim Gaya, a resident in Port Harcourt, said he lost over N160,000 to a fake UBA customer care on Twitter. After experiencing a dispensing error of N21,000 from a POS stand, he took to Twitter to express his ordeal, as many do. But the response he got was from a fake UBA agent, who engaged and asked him to send his sensitive bank details. Mr Gaya obliged, which resulted in a debit of N169,000 from his bank account.
Yet another man, a resident of Lagos, Andrew Enin, said he did not know he was interacting with a fake UBA agent when he divulged his bank details after a failed transaction. Like Gaya, he went to Twitter to call out the bank only to fall for the bait of a suspected internet fraudster posing as a UBA agent. Mr Enin didn't know he had been dubbed until he saw an unsolicited debit of N139,000 on his phone.
"It was later I saw a bank official I knew in my area," Mr Enin recalled. "He then told me my account had been hacked."
However, UBA is not the only bank whose social media account has been cloned for fraud. Nearly all Nigerian banks have fake versions of their social media handles created by parodists. Last year, the Foundation for Investigative Journalism spotlighted how internet fraudsters impersonated Nigerian banks on Twitter.
In its extensive survey, the newspaper revealed that over 100 fake UBA social media accounts exist, noting that financial institutions such as First Bank and Guaranty Trust Bank also have cloned social media accounts largely handled by internet fraudsters fleecing unsuspecting customers. More than five Twitter accounts were identified to be fake versions of the First Bank and GTB handles.
Experts have since warned customers to be wary of banks' social media handles they interact with, urging them to ensure they engage only verified accounts on Twitter and Facebook and to check the number of followers of the pages. On several occasions, many banks have also advocated that customers should never divulge their secret details unless they are sure about interacting with the right agents.
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The reason for these banks' continual caution and advocacy is not farfetched. In 2021 alone, a total of 1.9bn was lost in fraudulent bank transactions in eight major Nigerian banks, according to the annual financial reports released by Zenith Bank Plc, Access Bank Plc, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank, Wema Bank Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc, Polaris Bank Plc and Sterling Bank Plc.
It is, however, important to note that the surge in the number of customers falling victim to social media scammers is largely due to poor customer service delivery across Nigerian banks. Amid cash crunch and long queues at bank sites, for instance, individuals with technical or transactional errors would leverage the presence of these banks on social media to interact with them. These customers thus fall into the hands of fraudulent individuals masquerading as social media service arms of different banks.
