The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has listed three major ways people can easily lose their Bank Verification Number (BVN) to fraudsters.
Aminu Yusuf, Head of Economic Governance of the Sokoto zonal command of the commission disclosed this during the EFCC connect on Wednesday.
Yusuf said there are 3 things that are peculiar to everybody which make their BVN accessible and easily stolen. They are: loss of phone, fraudulent links and when one unknowingly releases his/her BVN details to another person.
He said statistics have shown that most people store their BVN on their phones and then owing to the fact that BVN is an eleven digit make it easily recognisable.
“And then there is a code that you can type in all our telecoms that you can access all BVNs.
“Most people know those codes. So if you lost your phone, the fraudsters know those codes and the first thing they do is to access that BVN. They look at the BVN and use it for their fraudulent purposes,” the EFCC official said.
Explaining the second way, Yusuf mentioned fraudulent links. According to him, one may be online and suddenly receive a text or email asking him/her to send his BVN for a bank update.
He explained that such links are fake and no bank will send such fraudulent links to customers.
He listed that the third way one can lose a BVN to fraudsters is when one unknowingly makes their phones vulnerable.
“Some people take their phone to charge. In Nigeria there are a lot of problems with light here and there, so your phone might be in somebody’s possession you wouldn’t know and then he can access it.
“The statistics have shown that these are the 3 major ways you can lose your BVN to fraudsters,” the officer said.
Yusuf also lighted that when one press *56#*0# one can also access his or her BVN on any phone linked to his or her phone number. Therefore these are also strategies criminals use.
