Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has intensified regulatory efforts towards protecting the interest of telecoms consumers from the scourge of financial frauds through its multi-sectoral collaboration approach.
The commission demonstrated this at the 2019 fourth quarter Open Forum of the NCC’s Industry Consumer Advisory Forum (ICAF) in Abuja.
Addressing participants at the forum, Adeleke Adewolu, executive commissioner, Stakeholder Management, NCC, said there has been growing concern over the rising trend of electric frauds across key sectors of the Nigerian economy with Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) rating e-fraud as the biggest risk on the financial sector where the using of e-channels to conduct financial transactions has become the order of the day.
Adewolu noted that telecoms sector is not immune to the scourge of electronic-related frauds, as attackers now target telecoms networks with the intent to disrupt service delivery and infiltrate their data banks.
“Illegal subscriber identification module (SIM) swaps and Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) e-payment frauds, are currently some of the most serious cyber threat in the telecoms industry/ Fraudsters conduct illegal SIM swap of targeted individuals and then, conduct USSD-based transactions which cost the unlucky victims huge losses,” he said.
Adewolu noted that the NCC, in dealing with the menace and in line with its fundamental regulatory responsibilities of protecting the interest of consumers, has been working closely with other stakeholder to implement technical and operational solutions to financial fraud using telecoms platforms.
“Just as we have demonstrated through ICAF, the NCC has embraced a multi-sectoral synergy to harmonise the activities of critical stakeholders responsible for combating financial fraud committed through telecoms platforms and we will continue to strengthen this,” he added.
Felicia Onwuegbuchulam, director, Consumer Affairs Bureau, NCC, who listed the various efforts the “Commission has been taking in protecting telecoms consumers said it is the NCC’s conviction that through adequate education, information sharing and provision of an array of channels of redress, we can safeguard telecom consumers and innovatively promote the prospect for greater consumer experience.”
