Collaborative Bank E-Fraud and Customers’ Reactions in Ado-Ekiti Metropolis, Ekiti State, Nigeria

Abstract

The high prevalent rate of banks e-frauds that is enthralling customers’ finance and bank integrity will soon begin to retard public trust and banks’ developmental purposes in Nigeria generally and specifically, Ekiti State if prompt actions are not taken against its effect. This paper examined the collaborative banks’ e-fraud and customers’ reactions in Ado-Ekiti Metropolis, Ekiti State. The paper was anchored in the fraud triangle theory to explain e-fraud, using three important elements (pressure, opportunity, and rationalisation). The qualitative data were generated from the respondents (bank staff, customers, and victims) respectively, using a purposive sampling technique. Thirty (30) key informant participants with adequate and information about collaborative banking e-fraud and customers’ reactions were selected for African Journal of Business and Economic Research (AJBER) (Online) ISSN 1750-4562 (Print) ISSN 1750-4554 Published consistently since 2006 Indexed by SCOPUS, UGC CARE List, IBSS, EBSCO, ProQuest, ABDC, SAJE, COPERNICUS, ERIH PLUS, CABELL, Sabinet and J-Gate Vol. 19, (Issue 3), September 2024 Pp483–500

the study. Key informant interviews were conducted, transcribed, and reported verbatim to complement the secondary data. The findings revealed that all the participants 30 (100%) had e-fraud awareness through various means ranging from 20 (66.7%) as victims of e-fraud to 6 (20%) through various social media platforms, and 4 (13.3%) as bank staff. The paper also revealed that some bank officials are culprits in bank e-fraud and that banks are not held liable for e-fraud committed against the customers and other related frauds. The study concluded that the effects of banking e-fraud on bank victims are immeasurable; therefore, timely intervention is highly required to reduce and curb the prevalence of e-fraud in the banking sector. The study recommended that banks should trained their employees to improve internal oversight mechanisms to identify and stop fraudulent activities, including e-fraud on the customer assets, while customers should be orientated on how to detect e-fraud tricks and report to relevant authorities for prompt actions.