EFCC Boss in Edo, Delta and Ondo
The Increase in cyber crime, locally known as ‘yahoo yahoo’ is on the high side and this has led to the ‘fight against corruption’ that was launched by the Benin Zonal office of the Economic and Financial crimes commission (EFCC) which has been involved in cyber crimes and the likes.
In a press statement in Benin City, the Head of Benin Zonal Office, Mukhtar Bello stated that the commission has done a lot to rid the society of economic and financial crimes, most especially internet fraud and cyber crimes and this is being done in collaboration with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI. He stated, “as part of our strategic plans to tackle this menace, the Benin zonal office from January till date through intelligence raided the hideouts of internet fraudsters in our jurisdiction which is; Edo, Delta and Ondo States. These raids successfully led to the arrest of 113 internet fraudsters and we’ve been able to secure 53 convictions with many other cases still ongoing in court”, he added.
Bello noted that several cars were confiscated from the suspects as well as laptop computers, mobile phones, flash drives, internet modems and charms.”Our Collaboration with the FBI has led to the arrest of a female suspected cyber fraudster who works with a foreign counterpart in dark web. She contains people’s information which she forwards to her American collaborator who uses it to file for fraudulent tax returns with internal revenue service. She in turn gets her share through Bitcoin and about N656,371,490 (Six hundred and fifty six million , three hundred and seventy one thousand, four hundred and ninety naira) has been traced to her”, he said.
He also announced that the commission recently arrested a cyber criminal and two siblings who were involved in Business Email Compromise: BEC. He stated that the suspect’s modus operandi was searching for victims’ email addresses especially official business email addresses to create a link and compromise the process in order to defraud unsuspecting victims. He said,”the three will soon have their date in court”.
The EFCC boss said that the commission is resolute in exterminating cyber crime and bringing to book all those involved in this despicable activity. He however called on all patriotic Nigerians to support the commission through information, as the EFCC alone cannot win the fight and also advised them to be vigilant so they don’t fall victim of cyber crime.