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Ebenezer Oyeneye might not have read the book ‘Other People’s Money’ (OPM) written by a famous author and Rich Dad’s advisor, Michael A. Lechter, but the business model that lands him in police net is eerily familiar.
Lechter, in his book, taught how to leverage your financial freedom using other people’s money.
Fifty-year-old Oyeneye tried something similar, after he was sacked as a truck driver.
He devised a means of hacking into someone’s bank account to buy call credits and resell.
He had allegedly stolen N400, 000 from an account before the Rapid Response Squad blew the whistle on him.
RRS officers told NewsmakersNG: “The suspect, Ebenezer Oyeneye, a 50-year-old truck driver who resides at 4, Moyinoluwa Avenue, Ijoko Lemode, Ogun State, was arrested by the Decoy team of RRS. It was reported at Aguda Divisional Headquarters in Surulere that one woman who wants to remain anonymous, reported that an unknown person has been recharging their phone call credit from her bank account at one of the new generation commercial banks in the country since July 2016.
“The victim complained about the frequency and sum of money which the suspect had withdrawn from her bank account by purchasing a credit “top up” which is debited from her account.
“According to the victim, she noted that the fraud began on the 4th of July 2016, after she received a debit alert from her bank that she had recharged a sum of N1000 call credits for her phone line without sending such command or initiating such transaction.”
Officers quoted the victim saying: “I was amazed when my financial institution notified me of a debit on my bank account and the same thing continued for like 11 months.”
NewsmakersNG was further told: “The woman filed the case with the operatives of the Aguda Divisional Headquarters, Aguda, Surulere, from where it was transferred to RRS for in depth investigation. This led to the arrest of the suspect.
“Ebenezer, whose academic education wouldn’t have alerted anybody from relating such crime to him, was arrested and questioned on his involvement in the crime by the decoy team of the RRS.
“He confessed that in July 2016, he tried to make a living after the truck he was driving was retrieved from him by the owner due to a misunderstanding. With nothing to live on and maintain his family needs, he then found a means of livelihood after trying to recharge his phone line with a short code and was credited N1000 immediately.”
Oyeneye allegedly told the officers that he tried it the following day when he issued a N3000 balance which was also credited, so he continued day in, day out, for weeks and months.”
He told the police: “I became so overwhelmed by the value of my call credit balance and I immediately resorted to selling of my loot to people around me for months before I was blocked off.
“The maximum I can recharge from the account is N3000 per day because my network provider restricted me to a daily top up of the said amount. I then sell from the proceeds and collect back physical cash from my customers.”
According to the police, the suspect, a patron of a popular Pentecostal church branch around Otta area of Ogun State confessed to have been sharing his loot with his wife and calling his mistresses as a big man with so much call credit.
When told the amount he had recharged within 11 months, Ebenezer said he knew he would have recharged up to the said amount (N400,000) because he never gave too much break as he found it profitable using the illegal platform to enrich himself and be on top of his mobile phone call usage.
The Lagos police spokesman, ASP Olarinde Famous-Cole, urged members of the public to seek professional advice from their financial institution before connecting their bank account to any online transaction and report immediately any case of strange activities on their bank account to the necessary authorities.
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