Fraudsters Steal Millions through First Bank …Lagos Police Smash Anambra Syndicate

Ololade Adeyanju

The Police in Lagos have smashed a fraud syndicate, in Anambra, which cleared money from bank accounts by hacking into customers’ e-mails.
Four suspected members of the syndicate were arrested in Onitsha, and three in Awka for separate offences in an operation led by the Rapid Response Squad (RRS).
According to the police, the suspects are part of internet fraudsters that specialise in hacking into e-mail addresses and using them to send messages seeking transfer of funds in tranches to different accounts.
Those arrested in Onitsha allegedly hacked into the e-mail account of the CEO of a popular lotto company based in Lagos and easily transferred N5million into four separate accounts.
Those nabbed in Awka allegedly duped a Lagos-based estate agent of N4million after he received an e-mail that gave payment instructions.
The police told Newsmakers that the owner of the e-mail address was the complainant’s client.
Confirming the incident, Lagos police spokesperson, SP Dolapo Badmos, said: “The e-mail gave payment instructions to transfer funds in his custody to an account belonging to one Emmanuel Ajinubi with First Bank Account No. 3046974892.
“The first transfer of N800, 000 was on October 24th, 2016. On 27th October, 2016, there was another instruction to transfer N530, 000 to the same account. On November 1, 2016, he transferred N720, 000 into Ifenancho Kingsley (a suspect) First Bank account 3050290672. And on further instruction, the following day, he transferred N850, 000 to same account.
“The total amount transferred into the two accounts was N3, 820, 000.”
Badmos said that the victim only realised that the payment instructions did not emanate from his client after he got a phone call from him.
The police are making efforts to arrest other members of the syndicate who have hacked into some corporate and individual e-mail addresses.
The arrested suspects have been transferred to the State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID) Panti for further investigations.