Abstract:
In the recent years, fraud and fraudulent activities have been on the increase in almost all sectors of every economy. It has defied local, national and even international boundaries. Fraud in banks is a matter of great concern to bankers, the monetary authorities, political authorities, and the generality of Nigerians today. It is so for many reasons. The methods acquire sophistication day-by-day. The size increases in geometric progression. The people involved in most cases are among the respectable members of the church, the mosque and the community. The results of the incidences of fraud are damaging. Frauds lead to unwarranted losses for the banks and put management of each institution on its toes whilst expending hard earned resources and energies on fraud prevention and detection. Equally important is that every incidence of bank fraud literally chips off a bit of the public's confidence and delay or slowdown the full development of banking habits in Nigeria. K.Muo (2002, 6) noted that although they have been termed bank frauds, some of them occur in organisations and involve organisations. Two frauds that cut across all organisations are - Computer Frauds and Advance Fee Fraud popularly tagged 419. A term derived from section 419 of the Nigerian Criminal Code. Adewunmi (1986, I) defined it as a 'conscious predetermined action of a person or a group of persons with the intention of altering the truth and/or fact for selfish personal monetary gain. It involves the use of deceit and trick. The action usually takes the form of forgery, falsification of documents, unauthorised signature and outright theft'...
