How Nigerians invested over N28.7bn, lost N11.9bn in crashed MMM

The Nigerian investing public lost N11.9 billion to the Mavrodi Mundial Moneybox, MMM, Ponzi scheme, according to the Annual Report of the Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum, NeFF, which was unveiled, in Abuja, yesterday.



It indicated that Nigerians invested over N28.7 billion in the scheme between June and December 2016.

The report also showed that the N28.7 billion was money that passed through the NIBSS, involving only 14 banks that are currently on the NIBSS industry Anti-fraud System, HEINDALL, an indication that the aggregate amount Nigerians invested in the MMM and the loss could be much higher than the above figures. N2.19bn bank frauds .

The nation’s financial sector lost N2.19 billion to fraudsters in 2016, according to the report. According to the report, the actual money lost to fraudsters is slightly less than the N2.256 billion recorded in 2015.

The report indicated that some banks shield fraudsters in the financial system by refusing to expose them, thereby making it easy for such criminals to continue in their evil.

It said that 1,020 were those who benefitted from fraud in the year under review but that the affected bank sent the Bank Verification Number, BVN, of a mere 217, representing 21 per cent of them. It said,

“It is quite unfortunate that despite several awareness and tips about BVN watchlist, some institutions still refuse to send BVNs of their customers who have been involved in fraudulent acts for watch-list, thereby leaving these fraudsters free in our ecosystem and subsequebntly perpetrating more fraud . “Out of the 1, 020 unique individuals who were beneficiaries of fraudulent transactions in 2016 across listed channels, only 217 BVNs were sent to the NIBBS (Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System) for watch-listing. “If we do not cut off these unscrupulous elements from the financial ecosystem, they will continue to migrate from one institution to another wreaking more havoc.”

Vanguard