Security experts from around the globe will soon meet in Nigeria to help boost the West African country’s parliament to fight Internet fraud and terrorism worldwide. In the article, “Foreign cybercrime experts to partner with lawmakers,” anti-cyber crime and terrorism experts from the US and other European countries will partner with members of the National Assembly to explore the extent of the fraud problem in Nigeria and discuss strategies to combat it.

Over the years, online schemes operating out of Nigeria have cost victims millions in fraud losses. The proposed conference of worldwide anti-fraud, economic and strategic Nigerian government agencies and groups will evaluate the country’s electronic payment system and ensure that measures are taken to protect public funds for a new payment system and other online transactions.

The decision to meet in Nigeria was based on statistics that revealed increasing levels of cyber crime globally. Bassey Etim, Coordinator of the National Assembly Anti-Money Laundering and Cyber Security Coalition, said Nigeria’s case is especially disturbing because there is an absence of adequate legislation to protect agencies, corporations and the federal government from falling victim to online fraud.  “The global economy is invaded by cyber crimes and terrorism of which, if urgent steps are not taken to stem down the increasing wave of internet fraud globally, especially in Nigeria, government would be losing so much to cyber criminals.”

The fact that many of the world’s countries are starting to work together to combat online fraud tells me that online fraud is becoming front and center on many political and economic agendas. And that’s a good thing. Meeting in the backyard of one of the world’s most notorious cyber crime hotspots is a big step for the lawless Nigeria, and for the rest of the world, as well.

Tags: anti-fraud, anti-money laundering, cyber crime, cyber criminals, cyber security, fraud losses, Internet fraud, Online Fraud, online transactions

This entry was posted on Monday, March 15th, 2010 at 5:07 pm and is filed under Financial Services, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.