By Shadrach Okon
Foreigners are taking advantage of the spike in unemployment in the country to to lure the teaming unemployed youths into Cyber crime.
The Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ola Olukoyede, disclosed this at the Commission during a press briefing on a landmark raid and arrest of 792 suspects for their alleged involvement in cryptocurrency investment fraud and romance scam.
According to the EFCC’s boss, the young Nigerians who were selected based on typing proficiency by their foreign criminal syndicate were assigned Whatsapp accounts linked to foreign telephone numbers to engage victims in romantic conversation as well as phantom business discussion.
“ Their Nigerian accomplices were recruited by the foreign kingpins to prospect for victims online through phishing, targeting mostly Americans, Canadians, Mexicans, and several others from European countries.They usually arm them with desktop computers and mobile devices and create fake profiles for them,” he said.
“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.” He added.
The EFCC’s boss, who spoke though the Director, Public Affairs, EFCC, Commander of the EFCC, CEWilson Uwujaren, further 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 and also used the identities of their Nigerian accomplices to perpetrate their criminal activities.
“All the floors are equipped with high-end desktop computers. On the 5th floor alone, investigators recovered 500 SIM cards of local telcos that were bought for criminal purposes.
Olukoyede lamented that: “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.” He promised that there will be no hiding places for criminals in the country.
