ELECTRONIC COMMERCE AND CYBER FRAUD IN NIGERIA: AN APPRAISAL

Akintunde Abidemi Adebayo

Faculty of Law,

AdekunleAjasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State, Nigeria.

Email: akintunde_adebayo@yahoo.co.uk (or) akintunde.adebayo@aaua.edu.ng

Abstract: Electronic commerce (e-commerce) has grown on such a large scale that there is no commercial activity you cannot embark upon within your house or business premises.  This rapid growth in e-commerce has attracted a lot of sellers and buyers alike.There is the evolvement of smart phones, tablets and palm tops which enable the users to buy and pay for things online, do internet banking, pay their bills or to even make a bet anywhere and at any time.  These innovations have brought convenience and also contributed to the quality of life of users. The main and distinctive advantage of e-commerce is that it has made life much more convenient for people and also removed various forms of barrier to trade since e-commerce could be conducted through various media. There is also the evolvement of the Automated Teller Machine (ATM), which has largely reduced queues which dominate financial institutions in the past. Now you can deposit or withdraw money without need to physically face a cashier in the banking hall. Despite the benefits and advantages of e-commerce, this technological advancement in the business world is still plagued by some challenges and the major one being security.  This paper will therefore, examine electronic commerce, its advantages, the issue of security as a major challenge and concludes with suggestions and recommendations.

Keywords: E-commerce, Security, Fraud, Encryption and Password.