The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC has announced a landmark arrest of a total number of 792 suspects for offences bordering on cryptocurrency investment fraud and romance scam.
The suspects were apprehended on Tuesday in a surprise operation at their hideouts, an imposing seven-storey edifice known as Big Leaf Building on No.7, Oyin Jolayemi Street, Victoria Island, Lagos , following verifiable intelligence received by the Commission.
Speaking during a media briefing on monday at the Lagos Zonal Directorate of the Commission, Olukoyede stated that 148 Chinese, 40 Filipinos, two Kharzartans, one Pakistani, one Indonesian were arrested during the operation.
The EFCC’s Chairman who was represented by the Director of Public Affairs, Wilson 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.
He explained that all the floors of the building are equipped with high-end desktop computers and on the fifth floor alone and Investigators recovered 500 SIM cards of local telcos that were bought for criminal purposes.
The Nigerian accomplices are usually provided with logs that allow them access to foreign communication lines and victims, which they chat with on WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram.
While giving further details about the modus operandi of the syndicate, the EFCC Chairman says the Nigerian accomplices, who are assigned WhatsApp accounts linked to foreign telephone numbers, especially from Germany and Italy, engage victims in romantic conversations as well as phantom business and investment discussions to trick them to shop on the purported online investment shopping platform called www.yooto.com and those who show interest, activation fees for an account on the platform starts from $35USD.
The EFCC added that the criterion for recruiting young Nigerians is proficiency in the use of computers, especially typing skill. Those who passed the test are given desktop computers and mobile devices and then taken through a two-week induction on how to personate foreign females in romance scam chats and convince victims to invest in their employers’ cryptocurrency investment scam.
MUST READ:EFCC Makes Single Largest Asset Recovery Since Inception
The EFCC however says the Nigerians involved in the alleged fraudulent activities do not know the owners of the company they work for because they are not offered letters of appointments or receive payment from a corporate account.
The suspected Nigerian accomplices are usually paid either in cash or through an individual’s account.
Olukoyede says the Commission is working with its foregoing Partners to establish the extent of the scam and the accomplices as well as the likelihood of any collaboration with organized international fraud cells as he debunks the notion that Nigerians are behind the tonnes of frauds emanating from the Country.
Items recovered from the suspects include desktop computers, mobile phones, laptop computers and cars at the point of arrest.
The EFCC says the suspects will be charged to court after investigations are concluded.
(Editor: Paul Akhagbemhe)
