" ITREALMS: Fraud Alert: www.interswitchnig.com is fake

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Fraud Alert: www.interswitchnig.com is fake

Market Intelligence:

Premier payment switching solutions providers, InterSwitch Limited has warned Nigerian Debit Card (NDC) holders not to disclose their cards’ Personal Identification Numbers (PINs) to anyone under any guise, insisting that www.interswitchnig.com is fake.

The fraud alert in a jointly press statement made available to Champion Infotel by InterSwitch and 23 member banks, said that the warning has become necessary as the company’s attention has been drawn to Short Messaging Service (SMS) purported to have originated from InterSwitch, asking millions of ATM card holders to register their cards online at www.interswitchnig.com

InterSwitch’s management, explained that the site was specially developed by the fraudsters to defraud unsuspecting debit cardholders.

“The website address www.interswitchnig.com is fake. InterSwitch’s registered address is www.interswitchng.com”, the company stated.

InterSwitch equally said that however, the fraudulent website has since been shut down after InterSwitch contacted the organisation hosting the website in the United State.

The organisation has since sent an apology to InterSwitch and “In the interim, we have reported the case of the fraudulent website to the appropriate law enforcement authorities for investigations.”

While assuring numerous card holders in the country that their cards issued on InterSwitch platform remain valid.

“We are reassuring all ATM card holders that all ATM cards and other cards with the InterSwitch logo remain valid on all our channels such as ATMs, Point of Sale (POS), Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), mobile phones and web,” the statement read.

InterSwitch member banks are Access Bank, Afribank Nigeria, Diamond Bank, Ecobank, Equatorial Trust Bank, Fidelity Bank, First Inland Bank, First Bank of Nigeria, First City Monument Bank and GT Bank.

Others include IBTC Chartered Bank, Intercontinental Bank, Nigeria International Bank (Citibank), Oceanic Bank, Platinumhabib Bank, Skye Bank, Sterling Bank, Union Bank, United Bank for Africa, Wema Bank and Zenith Bank.

However, banks should have taken additional steps in intimating their customers of this development like Zenith did via GSM phones, because not every cardholder has Internet access to begin with, let alone buying newspapers on daily basis.

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

No comments:

Featured post @ITREALMS

NDSF@15: Ojo, Adebayo, Nnamani, Ekuwem, Nwannenna, Odusote join DigitalSENSE Hall of Fame - ITREALMS

ITREALMS ... making leadership SENSE with digital news! The Executive Director, Media Rights Agenda, Mr. Edetaen Ojo alongside the chairman,...