Have you heard of the rising cases of fake transfers in Nigeria? Many small businesses have fallen for these unfortunate cloning of Nigerian bank transaction alerts after which they parted ways with their goods and services worth millions of Naira.
Our community is driven by vendors who receive remuneration for their services via various online and offline payment methods, we are putting this out to help them guard against potential fraud in their daily routines. Now, let’s get into the nitty gritty of fake bank transfers that a lot of small businesses in Nigeria have fallen victim of in the past few months.
How scammers pay with fake transfers in Nigeria?
It is quite simple. They ask to buy something from you and ask if they could pay you with a bank transfer. Apart from cash and POS, bank transfer is the most popular online payment method in a lot of offices, shops and markets across Nigeria. And as such, unsuspecting small business owners and vendors wouldn’t know which of their customers want to deceive them with a cloned fake transfer receipt, aka fake bank transfer alert.
The interesting part is there are levels to this fake bank transfer in Nigeria. The ones we have garnered from interacting with vendors online and offline include:
- fake transfer with USSD code that generates cloned receipt that is sent to the merchant
- fake money transfer message sent from a fictitious app to scammer’s phone as evidence
- fake transfer that hits your account, reflects in your balance but disappears in 24 hours
How do scammers do fake transfers in Nigeria?
Like the fake transfer scenarios stated above, there are actually many apps used by scammers to either generate a cloned receipt that looks very real or initiate a fake transfer that automatically reverses itself when the banking system regularizes during its routine daily checks. Let’s dig into 3 most popular fake bank transfer apps and formats in Nigeria:
- Fake SMS App
This is actually a real Android app made for fun. The app’s name on Google Playstore is Fake SMS – Fake Text Message. This Fake SMS app that scammers now use for fake transfers in Nigeria was originally created for people to fool around when chatting with friends. It was created for people who want to share conversations that never happened and catch fun with it, not to really scam innocent business owners.
The original use cases for this app are:
- Tricking your friends into believing you received messages they never sent from them.
- Lying to someone that you sent them a text message but it failed, when you actually didn’t.
It is supposed to be a super fun app for fooling around with friends and family, right? But scammers use it to generate fake transfer receipts which they send to their phones and then show the fake debit alert to the small business owners as evidence that they did the transfer and have been debited so that the victim can let them go with the goods or services.
How are fake transfer receipts generated?
Before the scammers ask you to buy something. He/she would have composed a deep fake debit alert using a real debit alert from their bank as a template. When you give them your account details to make payment, the scammer will use your bank name as the sender ID on the Fake SMS app and forward the fake transfer message to themselves as evidence of payment. It is easy to fall for this because you will believe the scammer has paid, been debited and received a debit alert. Since credit alerts do not come instantly, even for authentic transactions, the vendors let the scammers go with the goods or services only to later realize that the transaction never occurred.
- Flash Funds Tool
The Flash Fund app (available to the public in apk) is a hacking tool that is mainly used to initiate a fake bank transfer and send fake bank alerts instantly to anyone without a trace. This is a powerful bank account hacking tool that allows scammers to generate and send deep fake bank transfer receipts to their victims in a matter of minutes. It is one of the most popular fake bank alert apps as it is capable of perpetrating fake bank transfer in at least 40 countries globally.
The craziest thing with this fictitious app is that it can hit your bank account balance with this fake credit transaction. Yes, if you open your bank app to check your balance, you will see the credit in your account – mostly in book balance, not available balance. However, because it is a fake transfer that holds no value within the banking system, it will be reversed within 24 hours, the same way erroneous ATM transactions or dispense errors are automatically regularized.
This type of fake transfer looks so legit that scammers have successfully used it to pay for bills, loans, goods and services without actually parting with cash. This is why you should be happy you found this post. If you carefully follow our advice, you may never fall victim to fake transfers in Nigeria. We love you that much, lol!
- Pro Bank App
Pro Bank Apk is a fake banking app that looks realistic due to its professional user interface. In this app, you can transfer money, view your transaction history, duplicate earnings or change your currency. You can change transfer remarks to transfer success or transfer error in settings. When you transfer money from your account to others, the lock screen will appear like a real banking app. More than 50 currencies are available in this app.
In the Pro Bank App, you can add the sender’s and recipient’s names to your transaction history. It also has a fake transfer receipt generator normally used to set up credit alerts as a proof that the supposed fund has been sent. This is the most dangerous of all the fake transfer apps used to defraud small business owners in Nigeria today, as it works just like a typical Nigerian bank app.
Similar to the Fake SMS app mentioned earlier, the Pro Bank app was created for people who want to pretend to be rich and flaunt a fake wealthy lifestyle. For instance, people use the app to make fake deposits like billions of Naira in their bank accounts, take screenshots and post on social media to impress their followers. Some use it to trick their friends – like walk up to someone, take their account number and initiate fake credit. The person will receive a credit alert instantly, thinking you actually sent him/her money.
You can imagine the huge mess that fake transactions like this can put innocent merchants who never knew how fake transfer works, then part with their goods and services. It is really not funny.
How to detect a fake transfer in Nigeria?
Now that you know how scammers perpetuate fake bank transfers to deceive small businesses and merchants, you are surely wiser and should be able to decipher if a customer is trying to defraud you. More importantly, there are certain details you can use to investigate a funny transaction when your guts tells you the customer is being shady.
These are the transactions details you can effectively use to detect a fake bank transfer in Nigeria:
- the transaction reference – Pro Bank will show in the reference number contained in the fake transfer message sent to your phone. Look carefully.
- your account balance – check which of your balances is showing the questionable credit transaction. If the money reflects in your Book Balance, something fishy is happening.
As a vendor, when dealing with customers on and off Yoodalo, don’t forget to vet every funny transaction, especially from customers you have never met before. Red flag… If you see Pro Bank in your transaction reference and the money shows up in your Book Balance, you are about to be scammed. Quickly escalate the matter to the appropriate authorities for help and ensure you do not part with your goods or services unless your bank confirms you have received the funds.
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