Certified fraud examiner and professional investigator Ransford Nana Addo Junior has urged bank customers and business owners to regularly check and reconcile their accounts, warning that delays in verifying deposits are making it easier for cash suppression fraud to go undetected.

Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Thursday, July 9, during a discussion on rising financial fraud losses, he said many victims only discover that money meant for their accounts has gone missing long after the transaction, by which time the fraud may have been running for months or even years.

Ransford said one of the most worrying forms of fraud highlighted in the latest figures is cash suppression, a situation in which money handed over for deposit either never reaches the customer’s account or is credited short.

“People give money out hoping that this money will get into their bank account. The money disappears. It doesn’t get to the bank. Either it gets there, and it is half or short in it.”

According to him, one of the clearest patterns in cash suppression cases is that many of the victims are people who are in a hurry and fail to make time to confirm whether their deposits have actually been credited.

“One of the key things that we have noticed is that people who become victims of cash suppression are those who say, ‘I don’t have time,’” he said.

He explained that this often creates room for fraudsters to take advantage of customers both inside and outside banking halls.

Ransford recounted a case in which a man allegedly posed as a bank worker, targeted customers who appeared rushed, and made away with large sums of money.

“I will tell you a story about how in one of the banks a gentleman used to dress up, go and sit down in the banking hall and then look at those who are in a hurry, looking at their time, and say, ‘You can leave the money with me and go,’” he said.

“They collect the money and pretend as if they are bank staff, and they walk out through the back door. They have gone with people’s deposits, GH¢50,000, GH¢100,000.”

Ransford said cash suppression also happens outside the formal banking environment when customers hand money to relatives, caretakers, or other trusted people to deposit on their behalf.

“There are times when brothers, sisters, caretakers say, ‘Go and deposit this money for me.’ They go and cook receipts by the roadside and send them to the victim that you have so-so money in your bank account,” he said.

“It is only when that customer now has time, and he decides to enter a system to check his balance, that he gets the shock of his life.”

Ransford said the problem is particularly severe within rural and community banks, where many customers are traders, farmers and small business owners who may not have the time or systems to monitor their accounts regularly.

He said the latest fraud breakdown shows that the bulk of cash suppression cases are coming from that segment of the banking sector.

“If you look at the cash suppression I was talking about, it is coming from the rural and community banks. About 90 per cent of it is coming from there,” he said.

He warned that this means some of the very people Ghana is trying to bring into the formal financial system are the ones most exposed to the fraud.

“What it means is that the market woman, the painter, the farmer, all of them are at risk,” he said.

He described the situation as a serious threat to the country’s financial inclusion agenda.

“It is a very huge slap on our financial inclusion agenda as a country that whilst we are encouraging our farmers, our village teachers, our market women within the communities to be bringing their money to banks, we are getting a situation where the money doesn’t reach the bank,” he said.

Ransford said that regular account checks and reconciliation remain some of the most effective ways to catch fraud early and reduce losses.

“The typical victim is also somebody who doesn’t do reconciliation,” he said.

“If fraud happens to you and you are able to identify it earlier, you are able to make some savings and recoveries.”

He said many customers fail to do basic checks, such as reviewing account balances, downloading statements, using mobile apps, or visiting the bank to confirm that money paid in has actually been credited.

“Basic reconciliation, basic download of statements through the internet or mobile app, or visiting the banking hall to say that, ‘I have worked all these weeks. Let me check whether my money is in there.’ Usually, they don’t do that,” he said.

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