Asian Man Stole Nigerians’ BVNs, Used Them To Launder N400m (Photos)

An Asian man used stolen Bank Verification Numbers (BVNs) belonging to senior Nigerian citizens to open fraudulent bank accounts and launder nearly N400 million in 2024.

This was documented in the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS)’s Emerging Fraud Trends report published in February.

The document revealed that the identities of elderly Nigerians were compromised and used to establish accounts through which illicit funds were moved and ultimately dissipated.

These accounts were operated by an individual whose selfie was captured during account registration, with geolocation data placing them in Hong Kong, across at least three financial institutions.

The incident points to weaknesses in Nigeria’s banking security infrastructure. For instance, despite a decline in reported fraud cases (101,624 in 2020 to 70,111 in 2024), financial losses have increased dramatically.
Within the same period, the total value of losses increased by 350 per cent, from N11.61 billion to N52.26 billion.

The data suggests that while the volume of reported cases has decreased, fraud schemes have become more sophisticated and more financially rewarding to criminals.

NIBSS further noted that the fraud-to-transaction value ratio, which dropped from 0.0053 per cent in 2020 to 0.0022 per cent in 2023, climbed again to 0.0040 per cent in 2024.

The annual breakdown of reported fraud cases shows fluctuations: 123,918 in 2021, 101,669 in 2022 and 95,620 in 2023, before the sharp drop to 70,111 in 2024.

But financial losses tell a different story, rising steadily from N11.61 billion in 2020 to N12.77 billion in 2021, N14.32 billion in 2022 and N17.67 billion in 2023, before nearly tripling to N52.26 billion in 2024.

According to the report, both attempted and actual fraud losses spiked between 2023 and 2024 by 338 per cent and 195 per cent, respectively, driven by persistent security lapses in some banks.

Fraudulent activity peaked in the second and third quarters of 2024 before declining towards the end of the year.