Study of the Prevalence and Impact of Account Takeover Fraud Among Online Banking Users in Oyo State

Account takeover fraud through stolen credentials or SIM swap attacks causes significant financial harm to online banking customers in South West Nigeria, and documenting its prevalence and impact in Oyo State provides evidence for protective policy development. This study assessed the prevalence and financial impact of account takeover fraud among online banking users in Ibadan North, Ibadan South West, and Ogbomoso North LGAs, Oyo State, South West Nigeria. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 240 active online banking users recruited from bank branch waiting areas. The questionnaire assessed account takeover experience, method used by attackers, financial loss, recovery experience, and future protective intent. Results showed that 34.6 percent had experienced account takeover in the preceding two years. SIM swap enabling factor was identified in 45.8 percent of cases. Credential phishing was implicated in 38.6 percent and data breach exposure in 15.7 percent. Mean loss per incident was 184,300 naira. Full financial recovery from banks was achieved by 41.0 percent of affected users. Post-incident security upgrade adoption was high (78.3 percent of victims enabled additional security features). Only 29.5 percent of all respondents had enabled all available bank security features before any incident. The study concludes that account takeover fraud is prevalent and financially significant in Oyo State and recommends proactive bank customer security feature activation campaigns, telco-bank SIM swap coordination protocols, and mandatory multi-factor authentication for high-value transactions.

Keywords: account takeover fraud, online banking, SIM swap, Oyo State, financial fraud prevention