Nigeria, Ghana and US lead in online fraud – Report

Ghana has been identified as one of the countries where online fraud originates from. The other countries are Nigeria and the United States of America (USA).

According to payment management company Cybersource’s 2011 Online Fraud Report, many UK merchants have been forced to refuse orders from certain countries with Nigeria, Ghana and the US topping the list.

The company analysed 200 UK companies  – 55% of these say they refused to ship to Nigeria at all, 34% to Ghana and 25% did not ship at all to the US.

Of digital-only companies (companies that ship downloadable goods as opposed to physical ones) Nigeria again headed the blacklist, with 47% avoiding it ahead of Vietnam, China and South Korea on 29% each, and the US on 24%.

Meanwhile, Cybersource had predicted earlier this year that online fraud is likely to increase as 77% of UK merchants project positive growth in eCommerce in 2011. Only 2% of merchants expect a decline in eCommerce, a Cybersource survey found out.

Even though, Ghana’s Communications Minister, Haruna Iddrissu said in May 2009 that “Ghana will soon introduce a Cyber Security Bill to check the growing menace of cyber crimes occurring in the country,” no such Bill has gone before Parliament.

Mr. Iddrissu told the media during a Meet-the-Press series that the Bill would empower the security agencies and other organizations to “wage an effective war against cyber crime in the country.” He also said the National Communications Authority (NCA), the national regulator of the Information Technology and Communication (ICT) sector would embark on regular monitoring exercises of internet service providers to check their activities.

Checks made by ghanabusinessnews.com in Parliament House show that no such Bill has been mentioned. It is also not clear when such Bill would go before the House, phone calls made to the Minister for his comments were not returned.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi