EFCC arrests 192 foreign cybercrime experts, 600 other in  Lagos

At least 792 Foreigners and Nigerians have been arrested by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) over their alleged involvement in cybercrimes in Lagos.

Among the 792 suspects apprehended by the anti-graft agency were 148 Chinese nationals, 40 Filipinos, two Afghans, one Pakistani, and one Indonesian.

The Executive Chairman of the Agency, Ola Olukoyede during a media briefing at the Lagos Zonal Directorate of the Commission on Monday.

Confirming this groundbreaking achievement, Olukayode revealed that the suspects were apprehended following a successful operation at their hideout, a seven-story building known as Big Leaf Building, located at No. 7, Oyin Jolayemi Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Representing the Chairman, the Director, of Public Affairs, Wilson Uwujaren stated that the foreign nationals used the facility, which could be mistaken for a corporate headquarters of a financial establishment, to train their Nigerian accomplices on how to initiate romance and investment scams while using Nigerian identities to perpetrate their criminal activities.

Highlighting more on their operation, the EFCC Chair said the Nigerian accomplices, were assigned WhatsApp accounts linked to foreign telephone numbers, especially from Germany and Italy, to engage victims in romantic conversations as well as phantom business and investment discussions to trick them into shopping on the purported online investment shopping platform called http://yooto.com.

According to Olukoyede, “Each floor is furnished with advanced desktop computers. Notably, investigators found 500 SIM cards from local telecom providers on the 5th floor alone, which were purchased for illicit activities”

“The Nigerian accomplices, hired by foreign masterminds, used these resources to scam victims through phishing, primarily targeting individuals from the US, Canada, Mexico, and various European countries.”

“They usually arm them with desktop computers and mobile devices and create fake profiles for them. “The Nigerian accomplices are equally provided with logs that allow them access to foreign communication lines and victims, which they chat with on WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram.”

“For those who show interest, activation fees for an account on the platform start from $ 35 USD. “Investigation revealed that the criterion for recruiting these young Nigerians is proficiency in the use of computers, especially typing skills.

“Once the Nigerians can win the confidence of would-be victims, the foreigners would take over the actual task of defrauding the victims and proceed to block their Nigerian accomplices from the network”

Furthermore, Olukoyede added that the operation indicates that Nigerians are behind major fraud emanating from the country, an act he condemned.

“Foreigners are taking advantage of our nation’s unfortunate reputation as a haven of frauds to establish a foothold here to disguise their atrocious criminal enterprises. But, as this operation has shown, there will be no hiding places for criminals in Nigeria,” he said.

The EFCC boss assured that the Commission is collaborating with its international partners to uncover the full scope of the scam, identify accomplices, and determine if there are any links to organized global fraud networks.