Nigerians battling digital payments scams, report shows

As per Kaspersky Digital Payment survey’s, 61% of respondents from Nigeria faced phishing scams when using online banking or mobile wallet services. 67% have personally encountered fake websites, and 82% experienced scams (via texts or calls) using social engineering, a comparatively high number.

When asked about awareness of threats against digital payment methods, majority of respondents from Nigeria said they are aware of both the financial phishing attacks (95%) and online scams (97%). 78% also stated that they are informed about banking malware on PCs and on mobile. This type of malicious software steals money from users’ bank accounts.

However, according to the report, 98% think that banks and payment companies should educate users more about the threats online. When it comes to a list of security features that consumers would like to see more on existing banking apps and mobile wallets, survey results showed that the following are of importance to them:

• the implementation of one-time-passwords (OTPs) via SMS for every transaction (76%);

• biometric security features like facial or fingerprint recognition (75%);

• requiring two-factor authentication (64%); 

• automated detection and intervention for fraudulent transactions (39%) and point-to-point encryption (22%).