The NASFUND Clients Savings & Loans (NCSL) has put in place measures to deter fraud activities on members accounts.
NCSL General Manager, Vari Lahui, spoke to Loop PNG about the measures during the company’s 2017 Annual General Meeting.
Lahui said NCSL had lost K100,000 in 2014 due to fraud and part of the reason was an identification oversight on the part of a commercial bank that the fraudster used to access the money.
“The fraudster obtained the details of the member and then went and opened an account at the commercial bank using his (members) name, lodged an application and then we processed the members application, the fraudulent application, and then paid it into the commercial bank account,” he said.
“We later found out that it wasn’t a member and it was a fraudulent account, a bogus account.”
While half of the total amount was repaid by the commercial bank, the firm made changes to its application process to tighten up on loopholes fraudsters would take advantage of.
Since then NCSL has not lost any funds due to fraud.
“We have now put into place steps we will take in terms of positively identifying the member before we accept any applications that’s why we now have no more identity fraud cases,” said Lahui.