{"id":92404,"date":"2024-12-17T09:12:24","date_gmt":"2024-12-17T09:12:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=92404"},"modified":"2024-12-18T18:44:52","modified_gmt":"2024-12-18T18:44:52","slug":"arabs-chinese-filipinos-kazakhstan-among-792-arrested-for-alleged-fraud-romance-scams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=92404","title":{"rendered":"Arabs, Chinese, Filipinos, Kazakhstani among 792 arrested for alleged fraud, romance scams"},"content":{"rendered":"

EFCC \u00a0busts syndicate of 792\u00a0 cryptocurrency investment, romance fraud suspects in Lagos<\/b><\/span>
\n\u2026 Arrests 193 Chinese, Arabs, Filipinos, Others\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The Executive Chairman\u00a0 of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ola Olukoyede, has \u00a0disclosed that the Commission, in a landmark raid,\u00a0 arrested 792 suspects\u00a0 for their alleged involvement in cryptocurrency investment fraud and romance scam.<\/span><\/p>\n

The \u00a0suspects were apprehended on Tuesday, December 10, 2024, in a surprise operation at their hideout, an imposing seven-storey edifice known as Big Leaf Building, on\u00a0No.7, Oyin Jolayemi Street, Victoria Island, Lagos\u00a0, following verifiable intelligence received by the Commission .<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nSpeaking during a media briefing on Monday, December 16, 2024, at the Lagos\u00a0 Zonal Directorate of the commission, Olukoyede stated that148 Chinese, 40 Filipinos, two Kharzartans, one Pakistani, one Indonesian were arrested during the operation.<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nThe EFCC\u2019s boss,\u00a0who spoke though the Director, Public Affairs, EFCC, Commander of the EFCC,\u00a0CE Wilson Uwujaren, further stated that the\u00a0 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to him, \u201cAll 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.<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\n\u201cTheir 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey usually arm them with desktop computers and mobile devices and create fake profiles for them.<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\n\u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nWhile giving \u00a0further details about the modus operandi of the syndicate, the EFCC Chair said 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\u00a0www.yooto.com.\u00a0<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nHe added: \u201cFor those who show interest, activation fees for an account on the platform starts from $35USD.<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\n\u201cInvestigation revealed that the criterion for recruiting these 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.<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\n\u201cOnce the Nigerians are able to 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. This would then leave them in the dark about the transaction.\u201d<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nHe, however, said the Nigerians involved in the alleged fraudulent activities \u201cdo 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.\u201d<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nAccording to him, the\u00a0 suspected Nigerian accomplices are usually paid either in cash or through an individual’s account.<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nOlukoyede said the Commission was 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.\u00a0<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nThe EFCC Chair also used the occasion to debunk the notion that Nigerians are behind the tonnes of frauds emanating from the country.<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u201cForeigners 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,\u201dhe said.<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nAlso speaking during the occasion , the acting Zonal Director, Lagos Zonal Directorate of the Commission, Michael Wetkas, sought greater collaboration with the media in the fight against\u00a0 corruption and economic and financial crimes.<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nItems recovered from the suspects include desktop computers, mobile phones, laptop computers and cars at the point of arrest.<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nThe suspects will be charged to court after investigations are concluded.\u00a0<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\n\u25cf <\/b><\/span>By<\/span> Dele Oyewale, <\/b><\/span>Head, Media & Publicity, EFCC.<\/span>
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EFCC \u00a0busts syndicate of 792\u00a0 cryptocurrency investment, romance fraud suspects in Lagos \u2026 Arrests 193 Chinese, Arabs, Filipinos, Others\u00a0 The Executive Chairman\u00a0 of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ola Olukoyede, has \u00a0disclosed that the Commission, in a landmark raid,\u00a0 arrested 792 suspects\u00a0 for their alleged involvement in cryptocurrency investment fraud and romance scam. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":62638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,5786],"tags":[6890,1456,354],"class_list":["post-92404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-statement","tag-arabs","tag-chinese","tag-fraud"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=92404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/62638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=92404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=92404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=92404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}