CBN warns Nigerians over rising fraudulent foreign currency transfer claims

A increasing trend of fraudulent foreign money transfer claims has prompted the Central Bank of Nigeria to issue a warning to Nigerians, cautioning them against the use of forged SWIFT documentation to support such claims.

The CBN warned the public to be on the lookout for fraudulent schemes employing phoney SWIFT messages in a statement signed by Mrs. Hakama Ali, its Acting Director of Corporate Communications, on Tuesday.

The apex bank revealed that it has been inundated with complaints from individuals, private companies, law firms, and government organisations alleging that foreign monies that have been sent to their accounts have not been credited.

The bank pointed out that a large number of these complaints include forged SWIFT MT103 forms and acknowledgement copies that are unverifiable on the SWIFT network, suggesting that the alleged transfers never took place.

The statement said, “Recently, the Central Bank of Nigeria has been inundated with claims by private entities, individuals, law firms and government agencies that foreign currency funds allegedly transferred to them by foreign entities have yet to be credited to their accounts with Nigerian banks.

“In some instances, the claimants alleged that the funds were withheld by either the beneficiary bank in Nigeria or the CBN and requested the assistance of the bank towards releasing the funds to them. The requests are usually supported with fake documents such as SWIFT MT103, SWIFT Ack copy, etc.

“It has become imperative to state that the SWIFT ack copy and SWIFT MT103 that these claimants usually attach as evidence of remittance to beneficiary banks in Nigeria are not reliable. The SWIFT messages are always not traceable on the SWIFT platform, and the funds have not been received to enable their application to the beneficiary’s account.

“In a situation where a fund transfer beneficiary’s receiving bank claims non-receipt of funds remitted by the foreign entity (sending customer), instead of escalating such issue to CBN or Law Enforcement Agencies, the standard practice is for the sending customer to contact the sending bank to send a tracer to trace where the fund is hanging and recall it.”
The CBN clarified its stance by emphasising that it does not keep accounts for private companies or offer correspondent banking services to Nigerian banks.

"For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to state emphatically that the CBN does not maintain accounts for private business entities or provide correspondent banking services for Nigerian banks in foreign payments," the statement continued. As a result, the petitioners' assertion that the CBN is preventing the purportedly anticipated inflows for subsequent credit into private company entities' accounts is not only unfounded but dishonest.

Instead of elevating the issue to the CBN or law enforcement, the bank advised anyone with a legitimate case of unreceived cash to follow conventional protocols by getting in touch with the sender's bank to track down and retrieve the monies.

It also issued a warning against making unsubstantiated claims, stating that it would not hesitate to report such cases to the authorities for investigation and prosecution.