Africa-Press – Namibia. COMMERCIAL banks have lost about N$13,3 million due to scamming in the past financial year.
Bank of Namibia (BoN) spokesperson Kazembire Zemburuka says the heavy losses by commercial banks are due to 32 000 fraudulent cases recorded in the banking sector in the better part of last year.
“Banking institutions are mandated by the bank to strengthen internal controls and monitoring systems as part of operational risk management to avert fraud,” he says.
This comes at the back of Apex bank confirming that the Namibian Interbank Settlement System (Niss) recorded transactions worth N$1 trillion in 2021. According to the central bank the share of single transactions settled in the Niss amounted to N$726,4 billion, while retail transactions amounted to N$323,9 billion.
Zemburuka says payment fraud accounted for 0,0012% of the total value transacted, using payment instruments such as electronic fund transfers, debit/hybrid/credit cards, electronic money, such as e-wallets/blue-wallets, and so forth.
“These efforts entail the co-option of cybersecurity experts, and capacity building on persistent and emerging payment scams for Namibian Police investigators,” Zemburuka says. Most of the money has been recovered, he says.
“Banks will not call, email, or text to ask for your personal information like your bank account, debit/credit card numbers, or one-time password (OTP) and personal identification number (PIN). Take steps to block unwanted calls and to filter unwanted text messages,” he says.
He says the central bank collects information and data on fraudulent activities as reported by the commercial banks and other authorised non-bank payment instrument issuers on a periodic basis, and conducts analyses to establish trends.
“Report scams or your suspicions of fraudulent activity to your nearest branch or police station. Publicly available fraud awareness information can also be found on www.pan.org.na as well as on the respective commercial banks’ websites,” Zemburuka says.
He says the BoN is working with both the Payments Association of Namibia and commercial banks to curb payment fraud. The BoN’s mandate, among others, is concerned with financial stability.
“This includes the safety and security of payments where financial fraud typically happens,” he says.
“The bank may from time to time issue regulations aimed at addressing control weaknesses within the banking industry to close any gaps that may have been identified, and to pre-emptively ensure the safety of any payment instrument used by the public.” Zemburuka says scammers often pretend to contact potential victims on behalf of their commercial banks.
“People should not give their personal or financial information in response to a request they did not expect. Moreover, customers are advised not to click on any links in texts or email messages they get from a commercial bank in general. Instead, contact the bank using a website one knows is trustworthy.”
In an earlier report the BoN said the settlement system has been able to deliver real-time payments for all Namibian transactions across all banking platforms.
The Niss is a real-time gross settlement system that processes and settles time-critical payments. The BoN has also recorded a high number of electronic payments through NamPay.
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