Ecobank Ghana has denied claims that its staff were involved in the recent cases of fraud involving several thousands of cedis and dollars from customers’ accounts after fraudsters had swapped the SIM cards of those customers.
Techfocus24 reported on at least two of such cases. In the first one, the customer lost GHS4,000 and US$8,000 from two separate Ecobank accounts, while the second one involved the transfer of GHS250,000 from the account of a customer in one day, even though the customer had a daily transaction limit of GHS20,000 on that account.
Following the reports, Ecobank, in collaboration with the Police and with MTN Ghana, got at least five persons arrested somewhere in Kumasi and at Assin Fosu. The five were put on trail. But no staff of Ecobank nor MTN were mentioned.
Meanwhile, one of the victims had told Techfocus24 that he suspected there are insiders at both MTN and Ecobank who collaborated with outsiders to exact the fraud.
While the CEO of MTN Ghana, Selorm Adadevoh openly said that the cases reported were live cases they are still working on, and they were yet to determine whether or not any staff of MTN was involved, Ecobank has vehemently denied the involvement of its staff and stated that the point of vulnerability is the telco from where the SIMs were swapped.
In response to a questionnaire from Techfocus24 about the alleged involvement of Ecobank staff, the outgoing Managing Director, Dan Sackey said “No, I vehemently disagree with you on this. So far, we have no evidence of the involvement of any staff of the bank in these fraud cases.”
He explained that most of the cases recorded are related to SIM swap or identity theft, which is only possible when fraudsters take control of one’s mobile phone number, using the person’s stolen personal data.
“So, clearly, the point of vulnerability is at the Telco end and that is why we continue to work with all Telcos to bring this menace to an end, or at least, minimise it drastically,” he said.
Dan Sackey said Ecobank is confident about making much progress in the fight against digital fraud once the Telcos have all complied with the directives of the National Communications Authority (NCA) by deactivating over nine million unregistered SIM card.
But some individual bankers have told Techfocus24 that, particularly, the transfer of GHS250,000 from an account which had a standing order limiting daily transaction to only GHS20,000 points to the involvement of insiders, otherwise there was no way the fraudster could remotely circumvent the standing order.
Meanwhile, Dan Sackey used the opportunity to further remind Ecobank customers and all people performing financial transaction electronically that protecting bank accounts is a two-way responsibility.
“The bank has an obligation to keep customer accounts secure, confidential and alert customers upon noticing suspicious transactions, among other things, while customers also have the obligation to keep bank and personal details confidential and never give out such information to anyone, whether remotely or face-to-face,” he said.
The Ecobank Ghana MD said customers should, for instance, never give out information such as:
- Passwords
- Personal Identification Number (PIN)
- One Time Password (OTP) – the digits you receive on phone to verify you own the account
- Card Verification Value (CVV) – the 3 numbers at the back of a debit or credit card
- Card PAN – the 16-digit card number at the front of a debit or credit card
- Expiry date on a debit or credit card
- or any other personal information, such as past transaction details, date of birth, etc.
He urged customers to rest assured that Ecobank IT platforms remain very robust, and the bank continues to explore ways to protect customers from activities of scammers.
The MD acknowledged that even though Ecobank is one of the leading financial services providers that is also very strong on digital and electronic banking, including the use of USSD code, which provide great convenience to its customers, those services are also associated with risks emanating from activities of fraudsters.
“We, therefore, owe it as a responsibility to safeguard the interest of our clients who transact on these channels, and that is what we have been doing.
“On the technology front, we have been doing this in varied ways. We also take it upon ourselves to educate our customers on ways to avoid falling prey to activities of fraudsters,” he said.
