Over 10 Nigerian banks and Interswitch, an electronic transaction switching and payment processing company, joined forces to launch the Cardholders Awareness Campaign in Lagos on Wednesday.
The campaign — incorporating television, radio and print advertisements — aims to check the activities of fraudsters operating within the electronic payment sector and educate cardholders properly, organizers said.
Interswitch Managing Director Mitchel Elegbe pointed out that various scams have been perpetrated over the last few months, requesting cardholders to submit their debit, credit or cash card details under the guise of participating in some nonexistent promotion or with the promise of winning bogus prizes. These phoney messages, he said, were usually circulated via e-mail or SMS (short messaging service).
“In some cases, the messages claim a network upgrade by the bank or Interswitch has affected the performance of cards and then requests cardholders to re-register their cards and personal identification numbers on a redirected Web site or phone number,” Elegbe said.
He noted that the introduction of payment cards in the country has caused a steady increase in the use of electronic payment channels.
“The rapid growth in card adoption and usage only goes to indicate the potential of well-orchestrated nefarious activities targeted at not only the unsuspecting cardholders, but also the banks,” Elegbe said.
According to Elegbe, the number of cardholders who have fallen victim to these activities represents far less than 1 percent of all transactions. However, such scams have heightened fears among current and potential cardholders as to the safety of electronic payments.
Investigations into these isolated incidents, he said, revealed a lack of awareness about payment cards and the need to protect personal identification numbers at all times.
“This joint campaign between Interswitch and participating banks has been designed to achieve three major objectives,” Elegbe said. “One: to educate the cardholders on the importance of protecting their PINs, which is the only way their money will be protected. Two: to create media awareness on card usage without generating unnecessary panic in the minds of cardholders. And three: to enlighten cardholders of channels on which their cards can be used other than just cash withdrawals at ATMs.”
The banks backing the initiative include ETB, First Bank, Zenith Bank, Oceanic, Skybank , Bank PHB, Intercontinental Bank and Wema.
