Before he met his
waterloo some months ago, 30-year-old Hope Olusegun Aroke lived in the elite
1004 Housing Estate, Victoria Island, Lagos.
Aroke, an
undergraduate in a Malaysian university, had the world at his beck and call, as
he could afford just about anything that meant class.
For him, provision
was probably just another successful scam away. And the race to maintain the
social status that fraud had allegedly earned him could never end.
In his garage was a
fleet of posh cars and SUVs, all of Mercedes-Benz brand. Though a tenant, he
successfully outshone the status of his co-residents.
To many, the young
man had done well for himself by a dint of hard work.
In some sense, Aroke
was working hard, but as a suspected serial scammer.
His busy neighbours
barely noticed his unusual schedule, but many were irked by his exceptional
flamboyant lifestyle.
Most times, when
neighbours were out to work, Aroke stayed indoor in company with other young
men, who were later discovered to be his fraud cell suspects.
These young men
included his apprentices and internet scam partners.
The operation that
marred Aroke’s merry-making living would have shot up his net worth by several
notches.
Going by the
revelation of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, he had successfully
carried out the scam operations worth N55m on unsuspecting members of the
public. He, however, became unfortunate while trying to conceal the nature of
the proceeds by converting it to foreign currency in partnership with Ibrahim
Tafida, a Bureau de Change operator.
He was eventually
nabbed by the team of the EFCC in Lagos.
Last year,
25-year-old Sunkanmi Odewale, a 200-level undergraduate of Mechanical
Engineering, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ogun State, a suspected fraudster,
breezed into an automart and bought a Toyota Venza for N4m.
Before, he was picked
up in Ibadan, Oyo State, three months ago, he was alleged to be notorious for
regularly swindling unsuspecting members of the public via the internet.
His N4m Toyota Venza
was the latest of his collections of luxury toys allegedly acquired from the
proceeds of cyber crimes.
He, however,
forfeited it and other valuables worth millions, which were seized during the
arrest.
The EFCC said he was
currently facing prosecution.
Other kingpins in
cyber crime in Ibadan, Oyo State, according to EFCC, are 300 level students,
Olowofola Tolu and Ekundayo Damilola, both of Lead City University, Ibadan.
They are studying Economics and Computer Sciences respectively.
They were alleged to
be the brains behind successful cyber crimes in the state before they were
arrested around Oluyole Estate extension in Ibadan.
Both of them made
good money from the business such that they paraded exotic cars among other
things.
Other boys believed
to hold the area in terms of cyber crimes operations and training of intending
members according to EFCC are Adelabu Kolawole, HND II student of Purchasing
and Supply Department, Ibadan Polytechnic and Bankole Fisayo, Ordinary Diploma
II student of Marketing Department, Osun State Polytechnic, Iree. Their
valuables running into tens of millions of naira were seized by the EFCC, which
said that they were all being prosecuted.
Saturday PUNCH’s investigation
found that more young people particularly undergraduates, now have the
wherewithal to afford luxury items such as exotic cars, live in hotels for
weeks, buy classy homes and throw lavish parties where expensive brands of
wines and spirits are offered. They also travel to choice countries of the
world and frolic with the hottest girls in town.
They live in such
affluence that will make an average worker with decades of meritorious service
cringe.
Saturday PUNCH learnt that
usually, they are undergraduates, predominantly young men enrolled to study
different courses in both Nigerian and foreign tertiary institutions.
These undergraduate
scammers and internet fraudsters are the current toast of their various
campuses.
Their friends, course
mates and distant admirers, especially the ladies, all wish to grab a portion
of their well-advertised wealth.
Using the internet
and other information and communication, these savvy youths, often successfully
dupe greedy people. Laptops, mobile telephones, flash drives, external hard
drives, printers and so on, are their work implements.
Since they usually
don’t operate from an identifiable office or from fixed residential addresses,
they cart away many people’s financial fortunes forever without pointing a gun
or being physically present.
They operate most
times through a network of connections across country borders, making it
possible for a person to fall victim at any location.
Saturday PUNCH’s investigation
found that the colony of internet fraudsters, also known as Yahoo
Yahoo, is growing to match the dynamism in information and
communication technology.
This also poses
greater challenge to crime detecting agencies in Nigeria such as the EFCC.
During some sting
operations based on internet-prompted information, the EFCC recently arrested
another five suspected fraudsters in Enugu State.
They are: 27-year-old
Uche Nwakor; 30-year-old Oluchukwu Ejikeme; 28-year-old Ifeanyi Ejikeme;
30-year-old Nnamani Ikechukwu; and Ibe Kodili.
They were arrested at
their expensive houses at No 26 and 42, Chimaobi Uba Street, GRA, Enugu.
The team is said to
be “serial scammers,” having defrauded several victims.
Items seized from
them where they were perfecting how to get the next victim are: eight exotic
cars, nine laptops, 21 mobile phones, internet routers, drivers’ licenses and
international passports.
Two months ago, the
game was over for notorious internet fraudster, Wale Olaide, who specialised in
defrauding members of the public through bank credit alerts.
Popularly called Wale
Dollar in his clique, he had great tentacles as his business transversed the
shores of Nigeria.
Although he had
successfully executed bigger deals, which had earned him a comfortable life, he
came crashing over a N5m deal involving two brothers Abdulhamid Abubakar, based
in Nigeria and Hashim Abubakar based in Togo. They are both into BDC business.
Under the pretext
that he wanted to do genuine business with them, he contacted the Togo-based
operator, asking for his Nigerian bank account number, which he authorised his
brother to give him. Olaide was supposed to pay in N5m to purchase the CFA Francs
equivalent.
But when he got the
account details, rather than send the money as agreed, he sent a false credit
alert notifying the BDC operators that his account had credited at the Seme
border branch and so he released the equivalent to him.
He was shocked to
find out the next day that his bankers couldn’t trace such payments made into
his account.
The EFCC said it took
investigative initiative to arrest Olaide, who it described as “a member of the
deadly syndicate involved in duping unsuspecting members of the public.”
It described
fraudulent credit banking notification as a new trend in criminality by
fraudsters and warned the public to be careful.
The EFCC Ag. Head,
Media and Publicity, Wilson Uwujaren, told Saturday PUNCH that
it was not in the character of fraudsters to buy lands or build houses.
He said, “They seldom
even buy houses or have permanent addresses because of the nature of their
activities. They often spend money on exotic cars, throw parties and generally
squander the money on things that are not fixed. All the people arrested for
such crimes are usually made to face the law.”
Uwujaren said there
were signs that could put one on the guard. “If for instance somebody you have
never met in person begins to pester you about your personal banking details
online, chances are that the person may be a potential scammer.
“Also when a total
stranger begins to make business proposal that look too good to be true, you
better watch it,” he said.
He said a good number
of scammers had been prosecuted and jailed; others had to flee the country to
neighbouring countries. He however said that there was still more work to be
done.
He said EFCC’s
conviction profile was dominated by internet and advance fee fraud cases,
adding that the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offenses Act 2006
prescribed a minimum of seven and maximum of 20 years jail term for advance fee
fraud offenses.
He admitted that
scammers were mainly youngsters but not limited to any social strata and
educational backgrounds.
An inside source, who
understands the mode of operation of internet fraudsters told our correspondent
that the commission depended mainly on raids until it had a breakthrough in
technology.
The EFCC source, who
preferred to remain anonymous, said the technology called Eagle Claw, was
designed by a young Nigerian, who landed in the EFCC net after he was deported
from India some years ago for successfully hacking the country’s military
website.
He said the
commission employed his services to help it understand the workings of internet
fraudsters and he eventually designed a technology with some programmed
language that sniffs and detects mails suspected to be from fraudsters.
“Once our technology
sniffs those codes, the mail is hijacked and we start investigation from there.
“Under the former
administration, EFCC was able to arrest 2,000 internet scammers using Eagle
Claw; it runs like a laboratory.
“There was a case
when our team of investigators acted like a ‘white man’ (prospective victim)
and we kept communicating with the fraudster until we fixed the Abuja Sheraton
Hotel as meeting point and he simply walked into a net.
“There are other
technologies that we are using to combat cyber crimes as they evolve.”
On their mode of
operation and recruitment procedures, the source said they operate in cells
(splinter groups) and each cell has a leader, who trains the new entrants.
He said the
apprentices usually lived with their leaders in big mansions, where they served
them, while undergoing the rudiments of the game.
He said gone were the
days when fraudsters used the cyber café, because of the fear of being raided,
adding that they now operate from homes, which makes it difficult to arrest
them, except by intelligence report.
He added that the
advent of private use of the internet through modems and other ISP channels had
made it difficult to trace scammers without an up to date technology.
He said that members
of the public could identify a fraudster by some traits, even though they
operate by nick names.
“If you see young
people living in questionable affluence today and appear broke tomorrow.
“If he offers to sell
his N5m car to you at N1.5m and the next week he has a bigger car, suspect him.
Most times when they don’t have a victim to milk, they run out of cash and
quickly sell their valuables to continue to live big.
“If the same young
man stays at home when people should be at work, hosting several girls in his
apartment, watch him.
“If he usually moves
with some other group of young men, who most likely stay the night in his
apartment and having so many ICT gadgets, watch him.”
He however said that
what is important is for members of the public to be careful and not to be
given to greed, as some well- educated people and even top government officials
had at some time, fallen prey to them.
Asked if it is true
that Yahoo plus brand (charm-backed) assisted the fraudsters in their criminal
activities, he said, “I don’t believe that they charm people, I think they are
just internet smart people who work with technology to people’s disadvantage.”
-Saturday PUNCH
No comments:
Post a Comment