A legal approach to the protection of customers of banks and other financial institutions from identity theft in Nigeria

Abstract

Although identity theft is not a new phenomenon in the banking industry, the internet, the use of databases in storing customers’ personal information as well as the ubiquitous nature of online transactions have heightened the issues of security and privacy concerns of bank customers. Of significant note is the increase in the risk of customers’ exposure to identity theft and the opening of the floodgates for unscrupulous and criminally minded persons to harvest customers’ personal information for fraudulent purposes with its attendant financial loss and reputational damages. This article examines identity theft within the banking and financial sector and the adequacy of the regulatory measures that have been deployed to combat it in Nigeria and the United Kingdom. It is contended that, despite the available legislation on identity theft in Nigeria with copious provisions to prosecute identity theft and the constitutional guarantee given to the privacy of citizens, the right to privacy of the citizens is still being constantly violated by identity thieves through unauthorised access to and damaging use of personal and financial data of unsuspecting victims. The article concludes that though, like any other crime, identity theft cannot be completely eradicated, it requires the concerted efforts of all relevant stakeholders to reduce its incidence to the barest minimum within Nigerian society.