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The Central Bank of Nigeria has raised the alarm over a growing trend of fraudulent foreign currency transfer claims, warning Nigerians to beware of falsified SWIFT documents being used to back such allegations.
In a statement on Tuesday signed by its Acting Director of Corporate Communications, Mrs Hakama Ali, the CBN advised the public to remain vigilant and avoid falling victim to fraudulent schemes involving fake SWIFT messages.
The apex bank disclosed that it has received a wave of complaints from private entities, individuals, law firms, and government agencies, claiming that foreign funds transferred to their accounts remain uncredited.
Many of these complaints, the bank noted, come with fake SWIFT MT103 forms and acknowledgement copies that cannot be verified on the SWIFT network, indicating 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.”
Clarifying its position, the CBN stressed that it does not provide correspondent banking services for Nigerian banks nor hold accounts for private businesses.
The statement added, “For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to state emphatically that the CBN neither provides correspondent banking services for Nigerian banks in foreign payments nor maintains accounts for private business entities. Consequently, petitioners’ claim that the alleged expected inflows for onward credit into the accounts of private business entities are trapped in the CBN is not only spurious but deceitful.”
The bank urged individuals facing genuine cases of unreceived funds to follow standard procedures by contacting the sender’s bank to trace and recover the funds, rather than escalating the matter to the CBN or law enforcement.
It also warned against making unsubstantiated claims, stating that it would not hesitate to report such cases to the authorities for investigation and prosecution.
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