From Uche Usim, Abuja

Cyber criminals have cloned the website of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) with a view to defrauding the unsuspecting public.

Against this background, CBN spokesman, Isaac Okorafor, has urged Nigerians to disregard any other website than the bank’s www.cbn.gov.ng.

“Our attention has been drawn to a scam being perpetrated by some fraudulent persons whereby unsuspecting members of the public are diverted to a fake website purported to belong to the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Related News

“There is the danger of these fraudsters extorting money from victims based on false claims that the payments made are to either guarantee or secure loans from the various intervention funds of the bank,” he said.

Okoroafor further stated that “For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to state that the CBN does not charge any fee from those desirous of accessing funds from its various intervention programms.

“We therefore urge members of the public to be wary of scammers, take every necessary step to verify claims by persons purporting to be acting on behalf of the bank and report any suspicious transactions to the law enforcement agencies or CBN branch nearest to them”, he stated.