Top five fraud types recorded in banks in 2023

Among the various types of fraudulent activities recorded in banks in Ghana in 2023, five stood out and came atop.

They were; cash theft, cyber/email fraud, fraudulent withdrawals from accounts, forgery and manipulation of documents, and cheque fraud.

Of the five, cash theft emerged as the topmost fraud recording a loss value of GH¢14.8 million as compared to GH¢1 million in 2022.

This is according to the ‘2023 Banks, Specialized Deposit-Taking Institutions (SDIs) and Payment Service Providers (PSP) Fraud Report’ released by the Bank of Ghana. 

The Report provides a definitive overview of various attempted and/or successful fraudulent activities recorded by Ghana’s banking institutions, Specialized Deposit-Taking Institutions, and Payment Service Providers.

Additionally, Cyber/email fraud recorded a loss of GH¢10.5 million followed by Fraudulent withdrawals from accounts which recorded a loss of GH¢8.4 million while Forgery and manipulation of documents stood at GH¢6.9 million and Cheque fraud at GH¢6.1 million.

The Report further reveals that the total loss value to banks concerning fraud cases, increased by 21 per cent in 2023 compared to the previous year.

This translated to a monetary value of approximately GH¢63 million compared to GH¢52 million in 2022.

Furthermore, per the Report, ATM/POS/Card fraud recorded a significant jump due to the increased use of digital channels.

Also, the Report cites SIM swap as one of the emerging types of fraud recorded by banks in 2023 with 15 reported cases.

The Bank of Ghana thus directed banks to enhance the security features of their electronic banking systems to make them difficult to access by fraudsters.