thriveonline

Online Scams in Nigeria: What the Numbers Reveal and How to Stay Safe

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 14:55:15 GMT

From statistics to solutions — what every Nigerian needs to know about online scams.

The digital space in Nigeria is growing rapidly — with over 122 million internet users in 2025, the opportunities for learning, business, and social connection are endless. But this growth also comes with risks. Cybercriminals are targeting Nigerians at an alarming rate, and the statistics reveal just how serious the challenge has become.

The Alarming Numbers

According to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) , nearly 60% of Nigerian internet users have encountered some form of online scam.
The EFCC reported that cybercrime accounted for losses of over ₦100 billion in 2023 alone.
A 2024 survey by Statista showed that 1 in 3 Nigerians had received phishing emails or fake investment offers in the past year.
Globally, the FBI Internet Crime Report ranked Nigeria among the top 20 countries most affected by cybercrime , underscoring the need for stronger protections.

These figures are not just numbers, they represent real people losing their savings, their trust, and sometimes even their livelihoods.

Why Scams Succeed in Nigeria ?

1. Poor Cyber Awareness

Many internet users are unaware of how scams work or what warning signs to look out for. This makes them easy targets for well-crafted fake messages, links, or investment offers.

2. Economic Pressure

With high unemployment and financial hardship, many people fall for “too good to be true” opportunities — such as quick investment schemes or fake job offers promising fast cash.

3. Social Engineering & Weak Digital Literacy

Scammers are skilled at manipulating emotions — using fear, love, or urgency to pressure victims into acting quickly without verifying the facts. Not everyone understands how to verify websites, check sender addresses, or identify fake domains. This limited digital skill set helps scammers thrive.

5. Trust in Social Media

Social media platforms are often used for scams because people tend to trust content shared by friends or influencers, even without verification.

6. Poor Cybersecurity Practices

Using weak or reused passwords, clicking on random links, and ignoring software updates make individuals and organizations more vulnerable.

7. Underreporting of Scams

Many victims feel embarrassed or hopeless after being scammed, so they don’t report the incident. This allows fraudsters to keep targeting new victims.

How Nigerians Can Fight Back Against Online Scams

While scammers are getting smarter, citizens can be smarter too. Combating online fraud begins with awareness, vigilance, and responsible digital habits. Here’s how Nigerians can take action:

Verify Before You Trust: Always double-check messages, job offers, or investment opportunities. Look up official websites, call customer care lines, or verify social media pages before sharing personal or financial details.
Strengthen Your Digital Security: Use strong, unique passwords, enable two-factor authentication (2FA), and regularly update your apps and devices. Cybersecurity tools like antivirus software can help detect fake links and malicious files.
Be Skeptical of “Too Good to Be True” Offers: If a deal promises unrealistic profits or instant rewards, it’s likely a scam. Avoid emotional or rushed decisions — pause, think, and verify.
Learn and Share Cyber Awareness: Knowledge is the best defense. Participate in cybersecurity awareness programs, follow verified online safety pages, and educate family and friends — especially the elderly and young people.
Report Scams and Fraudulent Activities: Don’t stay silent. Report scams to:-
National Cybersecurity Coordination Centre (NCCC)
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC)
Nigeria Police Force Cybercrime Unit (NPF-NCCC)
Your bank’s fraud desk or trusted online platforms.

Each report helps authorities track patterns and prevent future attacks.

Support Digital Literacy: Encourage schools, workplaces, and community centers to include digital safety education. The more Nigerians understand the online world, the harder it becomes for scammers to succeed. report incidents – Many scams go unreported. Inform your bank, telecom provider, or the authorities if you encounter one.

Repercussions of Cybercrime

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 08:30:08 GMT

Nigeria takes Cybercrime seriously

There are over 10 agencies who are tasked with tracking down and arresting cybercriminals. Those who are caught committing crimes online face hefty fines and prison sentences.

Use your time online wisely, check out some of the free online courses that are available to you and start making a legitimate income online.

Victims Stories

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 08:16:22 GMT

Cybercrime make life hard for Nigerians

Every year, thousands of Nigerians are affected by Cybercrime, here are just a few stories of people who have been harmed by cybercriminals:

Bulama's Story

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 07:59:42 GMT

Bulama's Story

Bulama is a cartoonist for the Daily Trust newspaper. Recently some hackers accessed his Facebook account and blocked him from communicating with his 300,000 followers. As a result, Bulama has had to start a completely new page and build up his followers from scratch. Find out how he could have prevented this by watching his video below.

Partners wanted for business cybersecurity awareness programme

Thu, 07 Apr 2022 11:53:59 GMT

Partners wanted for business cybersecurity awareness programme

An appeal has been launched to find organisations that are interested in helping to raise cybersecurity awareness within the Nigerian business community.

A free toolkit of cybersecurity resources is currently being made available to small and medium sized business owners. The promoters of this initiative are now looking for organisations who would be keen to distribute the toolkit via their own networks. They’re also offering free training on demonstrating how to use the tools it contains.

Organisations this will appeal to are likely to be active cybersecurity campaigners (charities, technology hubs, business associations etc.) who will find the toolkit a useful addition to their existing resources.

The toolkit has been created by the Global Cyber Alliance (GCA) and made available as part of the Digital Access Programme (DAP). The programme is jointly backed by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and KPMG. It aims to improve cyber security and resilience, especially among more vulnerable groups in society.

Adedayo Adeniji of KPMG explained further: “We know how important the issue of cybersecurity is for smaller Nigerian business. We feel that this free toolkit can play a big part in helping such businesses to better protect themselves. We’ve already run one successful pilot event, where we showed 35 small business owners how to use the tools in the toolkit. We followed this up with another, far larger, event for 200 more businesses. However, to make sure this toolkit gets the mass exposure that it needs, we want to work with as many other organisations as we can to help spread the word.”

“Essentially, we want to create valuable strategic partnerships with like-minded organisations who also understand the damage that cyber harms can cause to a small business. We want to show them how best to demo these tools so they can distribute the toolkit via their own networks, educational events and communication channels. We’ll supply access to the full toolkit and two hours of training. We’ll then work with our new partners to explore how best to promote the toolkit within their own communities.”

KPMG and the DAP team intend to host up to four virtual ‘train-the-trainer’ events (free of charge) during April. Organisations are invited to register their interest in these events here and to nominate members of staff who could become trained toolkit presenters.

The toolkit campaign stems from DAP research that revealed a worryingly low level of cybersecurity proficiency among smaller Nigerian businesses. It suggested that cyberattacks against these often vulnerable, unprepared targets were likely to cause significant financial hardship or could even force them to stop trading. With such businesses responsible for the majority of Nigerian employment, the fallout from successful attacks could be significant.

The GCA toolkit is seen as one way of combating this threat, providing guidance on issues such as phishing and malware; data back-ups and recovery; and protecting company email domains.

An Educational Experience

Wed, 30 Mar 2022 11:02:39 GMT

Uche’s story: an educational experience

When Uche Idu was asked to produce a series of films for the Thrive Online campaign, he found it to be an eye-opening experience.

The Abuja-based videographer and content creator was recently commissioned to produce six short films to raise awareness of the dangers of cybercrime – and the simple steps that can be taken to avoid becoming a victim. The stories he captured had a profound effect on the man behind the camera, much to his surprise.

“I hadn’t realised how widespread these issues were,” explains Uche. “It seems like everyone knows someone who’s been affected by social media hacks, bank account hacks, online scams and so on. That’s when I realised that some of the weird things I’d seen online, on Facebook for example, were the scams that people were now telling me about. I’d never fallen for them or clicked on them – but neither had I put two and two together. Now, because of the stories I filmed, I know what these are!”

Despite the widespread nature of the issues Uche wanted to cover, finding willing interviewees was tricky. Perhaps somewhat ashamed by what had happened, it appeared that few people wanted to revisit how they’d been caught out and for their stories to be broadcast. Of those who did come forward, most had experienced being locked out of their social media accounts.

“I found it incredible to realise that people could actually do this to other people,” Uche continues. “In our first film, I interviewed Babati Anas, a spoken work artiste whose Instagram account was hacked, causing him to lose all the content he’d built up on there. Then there was the cartoonist, Mustapha Bulama. Someone makes him an offer through Facebook to help promote his work, he goes along with it and then ‘boom’, that’s it, all his work is gone, all his followers. He has to start again from scratch.”

“The idea that there are people out there willing to do this; to hack your account and then demand money to unlock it again – it really got me thinking. It made me think about my own accounts, my own business, the brand I’ve built up and all its followers. It could all be taken away in an instant. That’s why we must learn to protect ourselves better.”

Thrive Online’s practical tips for protecting yourself in cyberspace have already paid off for Uche. With two-factor authentication in place, he was warned recently of someone trying to access his Gmail account from an unknown device in Lagos.

“I was struggling to understand why someone would want to do this,” he says. “I was thinking that surely my email account is worthless. Yet somebody out there wants it for a reason.”

“From working on this campaign, I’m now a big advocate of the importance of cybersecurity. The social media offers that are too good to be true, the suspicious email links, the free anti-virus software that actually contains viruses and malware, these are all things we need to be alert to. Personally, I’m much more conscious of these threats now. It’s been an educational experience that I wasn’t expecting to have.”

Gender disparity in cybersecurity

Fri, 25 Mar 2022 15:59:16 GMT

Gender disparity in cybersecurity remains a problem that we must confront

Eight years ago, Nigeria’s Ministry of Communications Technology won the first ever GEM-TECH Award from UN Women and the International Telecommunications Union.

This recognised the Ministry’s efforts to address the digital gender divide and to embrace the potential of information and communication technologies (ICT) to empower women and girls.

Around the same time, Nigeria’s National Broadband Plan aspired to close the gender gap in ICT by committing to:

monitor the number of women without access to the internet; and
provide incentives for private educational centres and civil society organisations to train more women in the safe use of the internet and technology.

Both of these events helped to shine a light on the issue of how few women were pursuing careers associated with science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Technology usage and cyber threats have significantly evolved since then, along with solutions and careers in cybersecurity. However, the fact is that women remain unrepresented in STEM jobs – especially in cybersecurity.

Cybersecurity career prospects for women and girls therefore must be addressed, both in terms of attracting more people into the industry and holding onto those few who we have already.

Unfortunately, research in 2020 revealed a telling trend in female enrolment in technology and engineering courses at the Federal Nigerian University. When it came to computer science and engineering courses, male students outnumbered their female counterparts by more than four to one.

In a similar vein, World Bank data showed that, in many sub-Saharan countries, fewer than 30% of engineering graduates were women.

A major factor contributing to women's underrepresentation in cybersecurity is likely to be the systemic exclusion of girls and young women from science and maths throughout their education. This then restricts their access and readiness to pursue opportunities in cybersecurity as adults.

Closely associated to this are unhelpful social norms and stereotypes around what kind of jobs men and women do and which sectors they work in. As Oreoluwa Lesi, Executive Director of the Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre in Nigeria, recalls, “The books I read growing up made me want to be a nurse - because women were usually nurses and men were usually doctors in the literature of my childhood. Stereotypes in media and culture are reinforced every day in Nigerian life, which influence women’s career paths.”

For those people – men or women – who do want to pursue an education in cybersecurity, opportunities are limited. Evidence suggests that only about 10% of Nigerian universities offer a cybersecur ity degree. ^[1] There is also a lack of cybersecurity training offered as part of other related undergraduate degree programmes.

To make matters worse, for those women who do make it into the industry, they’re often confronted by issues of gender discrimination, a lack of support and poor promotion prospects. This often results in women leaving the industry early and enjoying far shorter cybersecurity careers than men.

The ‘ 2017 Global Information Security Workforce Study: Women in Cybersecurity ’ found that alongside a lack of representation, 87 per cent of women reported unconscious discrimination and 19 per cent overt discrimination. In addition, cybersecurity jobs and certification programmes are often not well tailored to different gender needs, requiring long hours which many women and girls find impossible to manage alongside family and childcare responsibilities.

So, while acknowledging that these problems still exist, what more could be done to increase women and girls’ engagement with cybersecurity?

Firstly, Nigeria needs to adopt, improve and apply policies aimed at increasing the participation of women and girls in STEM as well as in cybersecurity specifically – to increase the pipeline of talent. The incorporation of STEM skills into girls’ education and the promotion of STEM university programmes to women and girls are critical, along with greater investment in STEM scholarships and bursaries for women and girls.

Organisations and recruiters must pay closer attention to diversity, addressing the gender gap in cybersecurity through inclusive policies that promote the participation of women and work cultures that are attractive to women and girls.

And the cybersecurity industry itself needs to champion opportunities, providing information, mentorship and resources. The CyberSafe Foundation’s CyberGirls Initiative – which equips 15-21 year old girls with cybersecurity skills and helps them find work – is just one example of what can be done to better promote cybersecurity expertise and careers among women and girls.

At this relatively early stage of its development, the cybersecurity industry cannot afford to miss out on the energy and skills that women and girls could bring. This lack of diversity needs to be tackled urgently.

^[1] https://a3techworld.com/universities-cybersecurity-courses-nigeria/

SME Toolkit

Wed, 16 Mar 2022 14:27:40 GMT

Pilot event marks successful start to toolkit roll-out

A successful test event for the roll-out of a new cybersecurity toolkit, aimed at owners of small businesses, was held in Lagos in mid-February. Thirty-five business owners attended the event and were shown how to use the resources within the free toolkit to better protect their businesses online.

The toolkit, created by the Global Cyber Alliance, has been made available as part of the Digital Access Programme (DAP). Backed by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and KPMG, the DAP aims to improve cyber security and resilience, especially among more vulnerable groups in society.

With this in mind, almost all of the pilot event attendees were women. Research has previously shown that female small business owners are more likely to be victims of cybercrime than their male equivalents, as they typically have less access to valuable resources, support or advice.

The event was hosted by KPMG in association with the Cybersafe Foundation, a non-governmental organisation established to promote safer digital access across Africa.

In helping present the toolkit, Adedayo Adeniji, a Senior Associate at KPMG in Nigeria, said: “This really has been a landmark event. We’ve known for some time that women have far less access to the cybersecurity resources they need to keep themselves and their businesses safe. I hope that, through more events like this, we can begin to narrow this gap and help more women to help themselves.”

Post-event feedback suggested that the free resources were well received. Attendees felt more confident about how to keep their businesses secure and were keen to share the toolkit with other women who they felt could also benefit.

Demonstrating the problem that the FCDO is keen to help the Nigerian government to tackle, one attendee said, “I didn’t know what phishing was before today. I used to see weird emails and just ignore them but now I’m going to take the time to go through them carefully and check whether they’re phishing emails.”

Another added, “I wish I knew of this toolkit sooner. It could have really helped my sister who was scammed. She still hasn’t recovered from it.”

The event organisers’ attention now shifts to rolling out the toolkit on a wider and more sustainable basis. Future plans include another, much larger, event in April with over 250 small business owners in attendance.

Plans are also in place for a ‘train-the-trainer’ event, where attendees will be shown how to present the toolkit themselves to further audiences across the country.

To find out more, or to learn how to better protect your own business, check out the free Global Cyber Alliance small business toolkit today.

Aisha's Story

Mon, 07 Mar 2022 10:16:08 GMT

Aisha's Story

Aisha, was hacked and has lost her Facebook account. She no longer has access to the hundreds of sentimental videos and images that she stored there. Follow her story here...

Cyberspace needs to be a safe space

Wed, 02 Mar 2022 11:15:47 GMT

Cyberspace needs to be a safe space – for all of us (by Tope Ogundipe)

For many Nigerian women and girls, cyberspace is not always a safe place to be.

Every day, we can encounter misogyny, cyber stalking or harassment or be threatened with physical or sexual violence.

Research released last year suggested that, globally, 52% of young women had encountered online abuse . Personally, I think that – in reality – that figure is probably far higher here in Nigeria because there’s a culture of silence around these issues.

Under-reporting is a major concern as many women are afraid to speak up about their online experiences. And, frustrated by what they see as the slim prospects of any real justice being served, those who may be prepared to speak up simply don’t bother to.

I recently led a focus group with a small number of young women. I wanted to speak to them about online gender-based violence (GBV). Initially, none of them admitted to experiencing this.

So, I told them my own story. I told them how, having previously been active on Twitter, I’d gradually removed myself from the platform because I found it too toxic. Although I don’t think I was especially vocal with my views on the problem of GBV, I nevertheless attracted unwanted attention in a way that plenty of other activists, feminists, female journalists and politicians would have recognised.

I was constantly attacked, threatened and called names online. It was uncomfortable and, as a result, I began to limit my Twitter activity significantly.

The danger of self-censorship

After I’d told my story, the women in the focus group began to open up. One by one, they started sharing similar experiences of harassment and threats. Having not wanted to own up to this previously, it turned out that more than half the group were self-censoring; dramatically limiting their online exposure. Some had quit their favourite online platforms altogether.

That’s damaging for us as a country if the same barriers that women face in society – missing out on opportunities for education, personal development or prosperity – are now being replicated in the online space.

Africa already has one of the widest digital gender gaps in the world (and it’s growing more rapidly than elsewhere), meaning far fewer women access and use the internet than men. As an example, in sub-Saharan Africa, only one woman out of three has access to the mobile internet , compared with one man in two. The digital economy could and should be a route out of poverty for the many women who are intent on forging their own path. We should therefore be trying to narrow that gap, not letting it widen.

That’s why the prospect of women who are currently active online deciding that they need to step away because they don’t feel safe is absolutely unacceptable.

Sadly, our online world reflects our wider society. We know that we need to do more to combat the culture of violence against women that is prevalent in Nigeria. That culture is rooted in deep gender inequality and patriarchy and because it already exists, it was easy enough for those harmful ideas and beliefs to transfer themselves online when the opportunity arose.

Digital technologies have benefited our society in so many ways – but they’ve also expanded the types of harassment that women can face and the volume of threats we can experience. Needless to say, that volume increased still further when the pandemic struck and isolation measures forced people to spend even more time online.

Increasing our efforts

So what’s the answer? Well, we need more effective laws in place to address online GBV – and they need to be implemented consistently. We need training for our law enforcement officers and judiciary so they can respond appropriately and in a survivor-centred way when these crimes take place. We need more communication to raise awareness of this issue, to make sure it’s taken more seriously. We need more support services and better reporting mechanisms.

We need the digital platforms themselves to improve their existing policies and to invest more in regulation and moderation to ensure that women are no longer targeted by unacceptable behaviours. There should be safeguards for ensuring women don’t feel vulnerable on these platforms and platform owners should be held to account if women do feel threatened. And where abuse does occur, there should be improved reporting and complaints mechanisms so that women get swift access to justice.

We need to tackle the big cultural issue around GBV in Nigeria, in all its forms. Where programmes exist, we now need to expand these to include online GBV, rather than isolating the physical aspects alone.

And we need to do all of this holistically; thinking of all the various, inter-connected issues and developing an operational plan that tackles them all, committing suitable levels of resource and setting clear targets for what we hope to achieve.

I wish more progress had been made on this front already but, throughout history, many civil rights movements have followed this same path. What starts with low-level awareness gradually builds momentum as more research becomes available, more advocates lend their voices to the cause and, eventually, society pays more attention.

We’re not currently paying enough attention to this issue but through platforms like the Thrive Online campaign and with well-funded, comprehensive plans in place, that can change. It has to change.

Based in Lagos, Tope Ogundipe is an expert in digital inclusion and human rights, working with organisations to ensure that their technology programmes, products and services are inclusive and create social impact. She’s currently working with the Digital Access Programme, which aims to help provide excluded and under-served Nigerian communities with inclusive, safe and secure digital access.

Babati's Story

Fri, 25 Feb 2022 10:39:10 GMT

Babati's story

Babati is the victim of a hacker. He has been locked out of his Instagram account and has lost all of his images and followers. Find out how this experience has affected him, and how he is making sure nothing like this happens again. Watch the video below.

Keep Your Children Safe Online

Mon, 14 Feb 2022 12:02:03 GMT

Help your children navigate the online environment

As part of our support for Safer Internet Day, we have been releasing content that promotes the need to take care of our young people and protect them from online harms. One of the resources featured on the Safer Internet Day website is the ' Be Internet Legends ' toolkit which is supported by Google. It is a really helpful guide that can help us all make sure that our children can make the most of the internet, safely. Here are some key pieces of advice from the Be Internet Legends website, for more details, click the link to the page.

BE INTERNET SHARP

Think Before You Share

Good (and bad) news travels fast online, and children can sometimes find themselves in tricky situations with lasting consequences. But what can they do to prevent this? The answer: understand how to share smartly with those they know – and those they don’t.

BE INTERNET ALERT

Check It's For Real

People and situations online aren’t always what they seem. Internet Legends know how to tell the difference between what’s real and what’s not.

BE INTERNET SECURE

Protect Your Stuff

Personal privacy and security are as important online as they are in the real world. Keeping valuable information safe helps children avoid damaging their devices, reputations and relationships.

BE INTERNET KIND

Respect Each Other

The internet amplifies everything: good things seem more exciting, bad things seem much worse and can hurt – a lot. A great rule to live by online, as well as off, is ‘treat others as you would like to be treated yourself’. Children can have a positive impact on others and stop bullying in its tracks by refusing to join in.

BE INTERNET BRAVE

When in Doubt, Discuss

When children come across something they're not sure about online, they should feel comfortable talking to a trusted adult. Adults can support this by showing they're open to talking, even about difficult or embarrassing things at home and in the classroom.

Children’s Online Safety

Wed, 09 Feb 2022 12:38:19 GMT

Addressing the "ticking timebomb" of children's online safety

The growing volume of cyber harms that Nigeria’s children are currently exposed to should be a source of huge concern for parents, teachers, regulators and politicians alike, claims one leading expert.

When the pandemic first struck, isolation measures meant that youngsters were given increased access to digital technologies for educational purposes. There were huge advantages to this; helping children with their development, creativity and self-expression.

But, as a result of spending more time online, there were also significant downsides lurking in the dark; the risk of cyber bullying, unwanted connections, exposure to inappropriate content and online sexual exploitation and abuse. The addictive nature of the technology involved (something that children are less able to cope with than adults) only served to exacerbate the issue.

Parents and teachers in particular have struggled to cope with the volume of new cyber risks that children have been exposed to during the pandemic. They’ve not always been able to provide the help and guidance children need at this challenging time, especially if their own engagement with cyberspace has been limited until now.

Tope Ogundipe is a passionate campaigner for improved digital rights and inclusion and an expert in cyber harms. Right now, she’s very worried about the effect this development could be having on our nation’s children.

Insufficiently protected

“Exposing children to the darker side of the internet, with little or no safeguarding, is incredibly worrying,” she says. “This can lead to online exploitation of children, especially in a country like ours with relatively low levels of digital literacy – where parents and children alike don’t fully understand the dangers they face or how to deal with them. It can affect children’s emotional, physical and mental wellbeing.”

“Simply removing children from these platforms isn’t the answer as that will affect their education and long-term prospects. As a country, we need more people - children and adults - accessing the benefits of the internet, not fewer. Yet every day, more and more children are going online without sufficient protection. The pace of the efforts required to protect them needs to speed up because this really is a ticking timebomb.”

The stats back up Tope’s fears

A 2020 report by the Nigerian Communications Commission stated that 90% of children under 16 had been exposed to one or more cyber risks at least once. A quarter of 11-16 year-olds reported feeling unsafe online.

The Open Eyes project reported that six out of ten young girls have unintentionally viewed pornography online. A similar number reported someone trying to initiate a sexually explicit conversation with them online. A quarter said that online connections had asked them for nude photos.

Honest parenting

The recently published National Cybersecurity Policy and Strategy does highlight these issues. Discussions are ongoing between various stakeholders, including platform owners, educators and policy-makers, to create a safer digital environment for children. However, Tope suggests that there are simple steps that parents could be taking right now to better protect their own children.

“I think we need to be honest with our children about the dangers they could face,” she says. “We need to advocate good digital hygiene, in the same way we told them about the Covid guidelines we had to follow – and why these were important. We need to show them how to keep their information safe, encourage them to never lie about their age online and tell them about the kind of websites they should avoid.”

“I’m a parent of two young children myself and I’m always checking their devices to keep an eye on what they’re doing online. I limit the time they spend on the internet and never let them download something – a game, an app or a movie – unless I’ve researched it myself first. If I don’t think it’s appropriate, I’ll suggest something else that is.”

“And all the time, I’m having the discussion with them about what’s not good for them at their age – and reassuring them that they’ll get more freedom as they get older and become more responsible. It’s the least I can do to help keep them safe.”

ATM Skimming

Fri, 28 Jan 2022 13:49:00 GMT

ATM Skimming

Next week we are going to be covering online financial fraud and how you can protect yourself from it. To kick start this series, we have once again teamed up with our friends at the Cybersafe Foundation. In this blog SISINERD from the foundation is talking about ATM Skimming.

ATM Skimming is a type of ATM fraud associated with debit and credit cards. This aim is to capture card information such as cardholder name, credit/debit card number, expiry date, and card PIN amongst others, and to transfer these onto a computer system for the purpose of creating cloned credit/debit cards.

Here is a video with more detail:

Christmas List

Mon, 20 Dec 2021 10:08:24 GMT

Christmas List

At this time of year more and more people are going online to buy last minute presents for their loved ones. Here is a list of helpful steps you can take to make sure you don’t fall victim to cybercrime while doing your online shopping:

1: Choose where you shop

Make sure you trust the retailer you are buying from.

2: Keep your devices up to date

Make sure all of your devices have the latest software installed. This makes it harder for cyber criminals to hack you. Tip; turn on automatic software updates and you’ll be notified each time there is an update.

3: Use a strong password

Ideally your password should not be an actual word but a random combination of numbers, letters, and symbols or a PassPhrase (see below). Make it at around 8-12 characters long. The longer a password is, the better – but be sensible! Click here for more tips on creating a string password.

4: Don’t click on suspicious links in emails and texts

Some of the emails or texts you receive about amazing offers may contain links to fake websites, designed to steal your money and personal details. Be careful!

5: Turn on multi-factor authentication

IT service providers are increasingly offering something called Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), also known as 2-Factor Authentication (2FA). Basically, it means that you will need to take (normally) two separate actions in order to access your accounts. This sounds complicated and time-consuming, but it need not be, and it does add a very significant level of security. An example of how it works is that you enter your normal password to access e.g., your online banking and the system then sends you a second unique, one-time password to e.g. your smartphone that you are then prompted to enter into the web portal.

6: Don't give away too much information

Only fill in the mandatory details of forms when making a purchase. These are usually marked with an asterisk*. If you can avoid it, don’t create an account on a new site unless you’re going to use that site a lot in the future. You can usually checkout as a guest to make your purchase.

Shine Your Eye

Tue, 14 Dec 2021 15:05:09 GMT

New cyber toolkit launched to protect the over-50s

A new, downloadable toolkit has been made available to help senior citizens avoid falling victim to cybercrime.

The Sabi Toolkit, available in both English and Pidgin, has been launched as part of the Shine Your Eye initiative. Overseen by the CyberSafe Foundation, Shine Your Eye aims to educate people about the simple steps they can take to better protect themselves online.

Less tech-savvy than the younger generations, the elderly have often been seen as an easy target for cybercriminals and fraudsters. Shine Your Eye hopes to address this by making the basics of good cyber hygiene easier to understand and raising awareness of the ways in which cyber criminals operate.

Contained within the toolkit are insights and tips around two-factor authentication; what to do when you lose your phone; how to protect your bank account; and how to spot the tell-tale signs of investment fraud.

It explores:

How two-factor authentication protects you from data loss and identity theft – and is both free and easy to set up;
The numbers to call to block your bank account if your phone goes missing; and
What an investment scam looks like, typically offering high rewards for little risk but demanding a rapid response.

In time, the CyberSafe Foundation hopes to create and distribute an extended version of the Sabi Toolkit, allowing more senior citizens to feel the benefits of engaging safely with the digital economy.

Until then, it will continue in its efforts to champion the cause of inclusive and safe digital access across Africa, especially for the most vulnerable members of society. Find out more about the Foundation’s work here .

An interview with Confidence Staveley

Mon, 06 Dec 2021 16:47:13 GMT

Tackling cybercrime with confidence

In 2019, Confidence Staveley wouldn’t have classed herself as a cyber security evangelist. Raising awareness of cybercrime was something she did casually – but only through her consultancy day job and the occasional press interview.

Two years on, she now runs the Lagos-based Cybersafe Foundation , an organisation established to promote safer digital across Africa.

The turning point was when Confidence’s mother fell victim to a classic banking scam, divulging vital information which gave a fraudster access to her account.

“Despite my mother being pretty savvy with technology, this criminal still managed to get sensitive information out of her,” explains Confidence. “That changed my perspective on raising awareness of the dangers of cybercrime. I wanted to help other people - to prevent them from having the same experience. That led to the Foundation being established.”

“Thankfully, when my mother realised what had happened, she reacted quickly. That’s a common piece of advice we always push through the Foundation: act quickly to stop the bleeding. Time is of the essence with anything cyber-related. That’s why I’m really big on the importance of an instant response. People need to know what to do to salvage the situation but the quicker you realise something’s happened, the quicker you can take action.”

Where it all began

The Foundation’s first concerted campaign was NoGoFallMaga. With its popular, relatable references to popular slang, the campaign focused on getting people to understand how deception and cybercrime often go hand in hand.

Subsequent campaigns have included Shine Your Eye (providing simple, actionable advice to the over 50s on how to protect themselves online) and Cyber Girls (addressing cyber skills shortages among women). There’s also DigiGirls, the hugely over-subscribed training, mentoring and internship programme – for which over 12,000 young women applied for just 2,400 places in October 2021.

Through their Cybersmart Child initiative, the Foundation publishes stories and songs that help children be more digitally aware. And they’re working with businesses too, encouraging them to work more collaboratively to tackle cybercrime and to use their own platforms to help raise public awareness. In fact, there’s a lot on the Foundation’s agenda.

The to-do list

“Awareness is such an issue in Nigeria – and across Africa as a whole,” continues Confidence. “People on the street don’t place the importance on cyber safety that they should, until they become victims themselves. Even then, we see people becoming repeat victims because there’s still insufficient knowledge about how fraud happens, how to protect against it and how to recover strongly.”

“Collaboration. That’s a major issue too. We need more of it. Too many organisations operate in silos, not sharing information. This means that there are masses of people who don’t understand the extent of the cyber threat. We need to get information on this into the mainstream, especially as more people go online for the first time.”

“Then there’s the skills issue. We don’t have the depth of skills we need – and some of the people who have these valuable skills use them maliciously. I want to show how these skills can be used to lift people out of poverty when used correctly – to protect, rather than to defraud. We could position cybersecurity as a force for innovation and employment; a way of tackling societal issues.”

“And don’t think our focus is just on individuals either. Our smaller businesses are highly vulnerable so we need to support them too. This isn’t about them having the best tech available; it’s just about having something to protect their businesses with. Otherwise, as criminal targets, these businesses aren’t just low-hanging fruit; they’re already on the ground! The bad guys don’t even need to put any effort in to take what they want.”

An idea takes shape

There’s no doubting the ebullient entrepreneur’s passion for her subject matter. That passion was first ignited while studying in the UK for her Master’s degree in IT Management. Choosing cryptography as one of her electives (“I’d explored many of the other areas on offer but this one was new to me”) marked the start of her cyber security adventure. Confidence returned to Nigeria and was working as a country manager in a cyber consultancy when the idea for the Foundation first took shape.

For a while, she managed to keep both plates spinning, even going as far as recruiting her first full-time employee and paying his wages out of her own consultancy salary. However, the response to NoGoFallMaga and the rapid growth of the Foundation meant that Confidence faced a big decision.

“I knew the size of the problem we were facing and how serious the response needed to be,” she recalls. “It was a tricky time for me to be thinking about sacrificing my job to grow the Foundation. However, that’s what was needed for me to give the problem my full attention, playing the leadership role the Foundation needed.”

“Now, I look back and I think we’ve come such a long way. Cyber knowledge and awareness is increasing; the cyber eco-system is stronger; people and organisations are starting to share more information; law enforcement agencies are more proactive in investigating cybercrime; and more people are being apprehended. Stakeholders are stepping up too. We’re seeing banks get involved with our Foundation work. I never would have believed that to be possible a few years ago – but they’re doing it because they’ve realised it’s a shared problem.”

Work to be done

It’s clear however that there are other potential partners that Confidence is less impressed with. “The media can certainly play a bigger part,” she says. “Raising awareness through media advertising costs a lot of money. That wouldn’t be the case if the media came onboard as partners – as happened during the Ebola epidemic crisis. Media houses treated that as an emergency. This is an epidemic too. We need everyone to realise this and work together.”

In time, maybe they will. For now though, Confidence is intent on continuing to raise awareness of the dangers posed by social engineering, investment scams, inadequate checks on the digital content seen by children, ransomware, malware - the list goes on.

But she remains resolutely positive: “I’m optimistic. I’m always positive – and we are making headway. But we can’t take our eyes off the ball. The bad guys are constantly innovating and evolving. They don’t stand still. Neither can we.”

Confidence’s top cyber security tips:

Banks don’t ask, so never share your full card number, PIN, password, BVN or One Time Password with anyone.
It’s a good idea to use a strong, unique password for each of your most important online accounts.
Use two- or multi-factor authentication wherever possible.
Use publicly available tools to verify everything you receive via email, scanning attachments or links to stay malware free.
When using tools such as antivirus software, pay for the most up-to-date versions if possible and avoid free or cracked (unlocked) versions which will likely offer inadequate protection.

Stay safe online with help from Thrive Online and the Cybersafe Foundation

Wed, 01 Dec 2021 15:39:07 GMT

We've teamed up with the Cybersafe Foundation to help you stay safe online.

To celebrate our partnership with the Cybersafe Foundation, we have recently launched our blog. Over the next few months we'll be sharing content and ideas that you can use to keep yourself and those you care about safe online.

There will be interviews as well as advice and guidance, so keep checking back for regular and up to date insights; and if you have any topics you would like us to cover, then please email us at info@thriveonlinenigeria.com

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