It is no longer news that fraudsters have been deploying criminal strategies to rob Point Of Sale vendors. LEADERSHIP Weekend gathered that these criminals, who sometime appear as PoS operators, also obtain the details of Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards of persons who use their machines and, in a few hours, or days, empty their bank accounts.
Point of Sale Operation (POS) is a fast-rising business in Nigeria. LEADERSHIP Weekend investigations have revealed that criminals and armed robbers now have significant number of PoS deployment in their network. The investigations also reveal that this network is fed by some illegal PoS merchants stealing terminals from accredited dealers.
Very disturbing is the fact that armed robbers now go about major cities with PoS machines forcing their victims to effect cash transfers to designated accounts.
When 21-year-old Grace Essien, a Point of Sales (POS) operator realised that she was duped of her hard-earned N40,000, it was already too late for her to recover the cash.
“He told me he wanted to withdraw N40,000 and remove a paper bag from his pocket. He then told me to count the money and put it inside the paper bag and that he will be back within a jiffy to make the payment with his card.
“A few minutes later, I checked the paper bag and all I saw was paper and the cash I kept for him had disappeared. It was very painful for me to lose such cash amid the hardship in the country,” Ms Essien said in tears, while narrating her ordeal to LEADERSHIP Weekend.
Unlike Ms Essien, Evelyn Okakhume ,a student of Benue State University, who ventured into POS business following the lingering ASUU strike said if she was not smart enough she would have been using her monthly salary to pay debt.
She had this story to tell, ‘’A middle-aged man came to my shop to make a withdrawal of N10,000 with an ATM card with insufficient fund. Luckily for me, it was a failed transaction. He knows the card does not have funds, but he told me to go ahead with the transaction.
‘’After inserting his pin, he quickly tore the receipt and told me to pay him because he was in a hurry. But I insisted on confirming the transaction by checking my account history. In doing so, it was boldly indicated that the transaction declined due to insufficient fund. Guess what happened, he quickly left in shame, perhaps to swindle another innocent POS operator.
Evelyn who lamented that barely a day goes by without a recorded case of POS fraud within her business environment in Jabi Abuja advised that, “In doing POS business, one has to be smart, sequel to the fact that e-banking frauds have developed into a mega industry where cyber criminals deploy sophisticated tools to even steal information and scam account holders. The list of bank frauds perpetrated is endless’.
LEADERSHIP Weekend reports that the digital revolution in banking has resulted in an equivalent revolution in e-banking frauds. PwC in a recent report on Payments in Emerging Markets notes that to meet the need for financial inclusion, there has been a rapid expansion of new technologies and innovations, which are helping to make it more economically viable for banks to reach the ‘unbanked’ or ‘underbanked’ populations. Technology has leapfrogged from branch banking to e-banking and now mobile money, which has helped to create pockets of strength even among the less financially inclusive countries.
“Amid the revolution, reports show that armed criminals who specialises in swindling and attacking POS operators are on the prowl across the country, dispossessing innocent POS operators of money and other items. This, the development will sadly exclude many residents from financial inclusion,” said Ajayi Temitope, a public affairs analyst.
LEADERSHIP Weekend investigations revealed that the hoodlums perpetrate their evil acts in broad daylight, particularly in areas that are not close to police stations and other security agencies.
Apart from using Sienna buses, for the evil act, it was further learnt that the criminals also use tricycles popularly known as ‘Keke Napep” to carry out their attacks.
The development has forced many POS operators to keep the money they use for transactions in places that are very far from POS machines.
Oftentimes, these POS operators, especially those at Maryland Axis of Enugu State abandon their shops and run away for fear of being attacked by the criminals.
The activities of the criminals have instilled fear in most of the operators as they now scrutinise their customers before attending to them.
Apart from stealing the cash belonging to the operators, most times, the criminals at gunpoint, force their victims to transfer the remaining money in the bank to their accounts.
A resident of Maryland, Obinna Okafor, told our correspondent that three of the robbers who terrorise his area were caught recently and were nearly burnt before some kind -hearted people intervened and took them to a nearby police station.
“They came with Keke to rob the POS operators around Maryland one fateful day, while the operators were still counting their losses, the robbers came back in the evening of the same day to rob the same people, but they were caught.
“I don’t know how the case ended but what I know is that they were stripped naked,” he stated.
Anothrt resident of New layout, Mr Obioma Madu, said the attacks on POS operators in the area have assumed a dangerous dimension.
Mrs. Dorathy Moses, who operates a PoS “business” with the help of a young lady she employed, said that she lost a huge amount of money to the two fraudsters who performed fake cash transactions with the female agent running her PoS business.
LEADERSHIP Weekend investigations further revealed that the story is even worse in rural communities and the outskirts of Enugu as operators in these areas are also complaining of incessant attacks.
Narrating their ordeal, some of the POS operators who spoke to our correspondent in Enugu decried incessant attacks on them by unknown gunmen in different parts of Enugu
They noted that the robbers have continued to attack them in broad daylight, stealing their money and most times taking away their POS machines.
One of the POS operators at Maryland, Ifeoma Ndukwe , said she has seven children and depends on what she gets from her transaction for her family’s survival as her husband was jobless.
She told LEADERSHIP Weekend that she has been attacked by the armed men twice, adding that she lost the money she borrowed for her business to the criminals.
Similarly, another operator at Maryland Mr Chibuike Amechi said the unknown gunmen attacked him recently and took away more than N300,000 from him.
“I tried to chase them and when they saw that I was driving close to them, they opened fire on me and dragged me out of my car and took my car from me. Till date, I have not seen my car. I just resumed work after some days in the hospital.”
Another operator at Independence Layout, Enugu, Ms Chineye Ugwu said she was recently attacked by unknown gunmen in broad daylight.
Also an operator at Abakpa in Enugu East local government area, Gloria Olivia, decried the incessant attacks by armed robbers and called on relevant authorities to come to their rescue.
Another POS operator at Edinburgh Road, Mr Alex Uzoma said he was yet to recover from the shock after he was attacked.
Uzoma told our correspondent that the armed robbers kept their vehicle in a place very far from his shop and trekked to carry out the attack. He said they initially pretended to be customers.
“After some time, he brought out a gun and ordered everybody to lie down. They told me to give them all the money I made from my POS. They took all the money including the cash I have not posted.
“They did not allow anybody to come in or go out until they finished their operation. They operated swiftly and they took over N200,000 from me. The sad part was that after the operation, they walked straight to their vehicle without being challenged.
‘I’m appealing to the government and security agencies to act swiftly, the attack on POS operators is growing at an alarming rate and if nothing is done about it, the POS operators will stop doing business.
“What will I tell the people that I borrowed money from? Another problem that we are facing is the issue of fake alerts, if they don’t attack us openly, they will send fake alerts. How they do it is what I don’t know,” he lamented.
They, however, called on security agencies to come to their rescue, saying they have lost huge sums of money to these robbers.
It was also gathered that there was heavy shooting by unknown gunmen last Saturday who were on rampage to rob POS Operators at Ogui Road.
The Enugu State Police Public Relations Officer, Daniel Ndukwe although did not comment on the development but a security expert, Mr Kingsley Egwu condemned the incessant attacks.
Egwu attributed the attacks to the high level of unemployment in the country as well as the ongoing strike embarked upon by ASUU.
Speaking on the development, a tier one bank customer service manager who spoke on condition of anonymity to our correspondent said: “There are gaps in the banking system which fraudsters take advantage of to rob unsuspecting individuals. illegal PoS operators can get a terminal in two ways. One is that they may steal it from petty traders who are now seen having PoS terminals. When such terminal is stolen the thief can send a mail to the bank that he has opened a new account which should be linked to the PoS machine.
“Also, they can disguise as merchants and forge documents knowing that some banks are negligent in the thorough assessment of customers. A bank should be able to visit the said business location to verify if it exists or if it is legal or illegal before giving out the PoS machine.
Speaking about how PoS came to be, the source said, terminals were introduced in Nigeria to meet the Central Bank of Nigeria’s, targets on cashless policy, an initiative to reduce the amount of physical cash in circulation. It was designed to encourage the use of electronic platforms for settlements or payment for goods and services.
To this effect, the CBN created the PoS guidelines released on August 2011 which stated: “PoS terminal owners should include: banks, merchants, acquirers, Payment Terminal Service Aggregator (PTSA) , and Payment Terminal Service Providers (PTSPs).”
The guideline further stated: “ On roles and responsibilities of Merchant Acquirers, only CBN licensed financial and non- financial institutions shall serve as Merchant Acquirers; Merchant Acquirers can own PoS Terminals, but shall only deploy and support PoS terminals through a CBN licensed Payment Terminal Services Provider (PTSP); Merchant Acquirers shall ensure that PoS terminals purchased and deployed at merchant/retailer locations through CBN licensed Payment Terminal Services Provider shall accept all cards.
On the way forward, he Said, you cannot get a PoS independently, it has to pass through a system. An illegal PoS machine operator can either be attached to a person who have the license and approval.
“Clamping down illegal PoS operators will reduce fraud. If you know that this is the source of a problem and you close that source, that problem cease unless those guys go and device another means. Today, they may be using PoS, but if you clampdown on it, they will run away from PoS and start using another thing.
