Bank of Ghana explains what constitues fraud in banking

Fraud constitutes an act of purposeful deception aimed at exploiting a victim, the Bank of Ghana has said in a report.

Usually, the BoG said, perpetrators of fraud target the most vulnerable in society and take advantage of their limited knowledge of the financial sector to deceive them or weaknesses in financial infrastructure.

The report listed what constitutes fraud in banking as ATM/Card fraud, Burglary, Cheque fraud, Cyber-email fraud, E-Money fraud, Fraudulent withdrawals, Forgery and manipulation of documents, Impersonation, Lending/Credit fraud, Remittance fraud, Cash theft (Suppression of cash and deposits), SIM swap-related fraud.

Data collated from the three sub-sectors , (banks, Specialized Deposit-Taking Institutions SDIs,  and Payment Service Providers, PSPs) indicated that overall, the count of fraud cases increased to 15,865 in 2023 from 15,164 in 2022, reflecting a 5% rise. These cases corresponded to total loss value of approximately Gh¢88 million in 2023 as compared to GH¢82 million in 2022, indicating an increase of about 7%.

Analysis of the 2023 data showed that fraud heightened in fraudulent withdrawals from victims’ accounts, cyber/email fraud, and cash theft (cash suppression).

Another area of concern is SIM swap-related fraud, where SIM numbers linked to banking accounts are fraudulently taken over and monies subsequently withdrawn from the accounts. This form of fraud targets individuals who have banking applications on their mobile phones and have linked their bank accounts to mobile money wallets.

Governor of the Bank of Ghana said in his Executive Summary of the report that while attempted fraud cases in the banking and SDI sectors declined sharply by 59% in 2023 compared to 2022, the total loss value associated with these cases stood at approximately GH¢72 million, a 29% increase over the 2022 figure of GH¢56 million recorded.

“The sharp increase in the loss value was influenced by outlier fraud cases involving foreign currencies, which when converted to Cedi,
ballooned the 2023 attempted fraud value at loss.

“The PSP sector also recorded a loss of GH¢16 million involving 14,655 cases in 2023. Although the loss value recorded in 2023 represented a 38% decline compared to the GH¢26 million recorded in the previous year, the incidents showed a 20% increase compared to the 12,166 cases in 2022.”

 

 

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