Cyber Criminals Transfer Funds from Stolen SIM Cards in Lagos

Matilda Omonaiye/

The police in Lagos have smashed a 6 – man gang allegedly involved in hacking into bank accounts through SIM cards from stolen mobile phones.

According to the police, the suspects specialised in robbing Lagosians of their mobile phones and turning over its SIM cards to hackers who get hold of the account details of its owners and transfer its balances to their accounts.

The Lagos State commissioner of police, Mr. Imohimi Edgal, who paraded the suspects disclosed that they comprised of three splinter groups visiting choice locations in the state to rob members of the public of their phones.

He said that six suspects had been arrested by the Decoy Team of Rapid Response Squad of the command in relation to the fraud.

He revealed that the group handed over the SIMs to another set of people that would through special computer apps get the bank account details of the owners and thereafter get the account balances.

Edgal added that the balance of the account is now transferred into different accounts sourced by another set of suspects.

Edgal identified Nwanze Ifeanyi, 27; Martins Achi, 27; and Solomon Dike, 31, as those who rob people of their phones and fled the scene on motor cycle.

He said that Muritala Mohammed, 28, a.k.a Swallow, through computer apps retrieved the names, bank details of the original owner of the SIM including BVN, adding that the recovered details were used to determine the account balance.

“Moneys in the account are transferred into different accounts sourced by the third group involving Shamson Mustapha, 25, and Ali Hassan, 27,” Edgal added.

He revealed that the activities of the group were brought to the attention of the Decoy Team of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) when they stole the phone of one Yinka at a birthday party in Egbeda area.

He added that he worked on the phone’s SIM card and transferred N1, 153, 000 from her FCMB account into the following accounts:

FCMB – Account number 1888032010 belonging to Ikechukwu Enyadike; Diamond Bank – Account number 00706675464 belonging to Oyinuro Victor and UBA – Account number 2096578968 belonging to Joseph Blessing Benita.

The owner of the account only got to know of the transactions when she inserted the replaced SIM into a new phone.

He further disclosed that further investigations into the activities of the group revealed that the gang also transferred N120, 000 from the Diamond Bank account 2000050986 belonging to one Chima Mbakwe of House Number 3, BM Anyawu Close, Iba New Site.

Muhammed, an SS 2 dropout of Ojo Secondary School, Lagos said that he started hacking into bank accounts of people in June 2017.

“My first hit was N20, 000 and the banks accounts that I hacked are UBA, GTB and Access banks. All the SIMs that I have worked on should be up to 47,” he added.

Exhibits recovered from the gang included two laptops, 10 SIM cards among other things.

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