June 2, (THEWILL)- Barely a few months after it lost the sum of $24 million to unauthorised POS transactions, Gbenga Agboola-led Flutterwave has again suffered another security breach that allowed unknown persons to allegedly divert billions of naira to several bank accounts. The perpetrators illegally transferred at least N11 billion to several accounts in April 2024.
Sources revealed that the stolen funds were allegedly moved to several accounts in five financial institutions over four days. The incident likely went undetected because the perpetrators ensured the deposits remained below limits that would trigger fraud checks. The matter was reported to law enforcement agents and investigations began in earnest. Sources within the financial industry also revealed that Flutterwave reached out to request KYC details of the accounts involved, adding that the accounts related to the incident have been temporarily restricted.
However, despite admitting that it detected unauthorised activities that were inconsistent with usual customer behaviour on one of their platforms without specifying the amount, adding that it is a common phenomenon in the financial services industry, Flutterwave backtracked, denying it ever suffered any security breach or lost N11 billion. It said that it discovered suspicious activity on one of its customer platforms in April 2024, but maintained that it aggressively prevented any loss of customer monies.
This is the fourth incident of unauthorised transfers at Flutterwave reported in the last 14 months. In October 2023, about 6,000 account holders across 35 banks and financial institutions received N19 billion ($24 million) illegally transferred through unauthorised transactions by POS merchants. In March 2023, about 107 bank accounts in 27 banks received N550 million.
In a February 2023 breach, N2.9 billion was diverted to 107 bank accounts in 27 banks, according to court documents. In February, Flutterwave received a court order—a Mareva injunction— that enables it to recover the funds and assets of the identified account holders, even though they have spent the funds, with the KYC details provided by these financial institutions. This avalanche of incidents raises security worries for Fintech which accepts payments in over 30 currencies from 40 countries.
Ivory Ukonu is a versatile journalist with many years of experience, with entertainment and society reporting as her area of core competence.
