The Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) has arrested four Chinese nationals and 101 Nigerians over their alleged involvement in a hotel review job fraud in Abuja.
This came barely two months after the agency apprehended 792 suspected investment and internet fraudsters at their seven-story building hideout in Lagos.
The EFCC spokesman Dele Oyewale disclosed this in a statement made available to the newsmen on Friday.
Confirming this groundbreaking achievement, Oyewale revealed that the suspects were apprehended following a successful operation at their hideout in a compact 100-workstation facility located at Naka Hall Plaza on Abutu Garba Street, Gudu, Abuja.
The agency, which described the hotel review job as an emerging form of scam in the country, stated that the foreigners recruit local and computer-savvy Nigerians as customer service representatives to help them run the illegal activities.
Highlighting more on the operation, the agency said their Nigeria accomplices are made to work on a prepared template of criminality online. They are given identities and names usually foreign, through which they chat with expatriates.
According to the statement, ” The crime involves making false representation to victims to win their trust to engage in hotel ratings with promises of $5 for every hotel that is reviewed. As the victims get paid, they are encouraged to review more hotels, and the payment is increased to $10 per rating. After a long while, the victim is encouraged to make bookings in any of the rated hotels for as much as $500 and the company would pay back with chunky interest into a crypto wallet bearing their names”
“After making bookings, the victim would not be able to open the wallet and his or her money is lost. The fraud is an intricate mechanism of defrauding foreigners and it is targeted at victims in Europe and other parts of the world. We are working with other law enforcement agencies across the world to dig deeper into the global dimensions involved in this crime”
Meanwhile, the suspects would be charged in court upon the conclusion of investigations.
