01 August 2016•Update: 02 August 2016
By Rafiu Ajakaye
LAGOS, Nigeria
A 40-year-old Nigerian man, accused of being behind global online scams worth over $60 million, was arrested Monday in a joint operation by Interpol and Nigeria’s antigraft agency.
The accused, according to a statement by Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, was arrested in Nigeria’s oil-rich Port Harcourt town following months of officials trailing the activities of his gang which is spread across many countries, including the U.S., China, Canada, South Africa and Malaysia.
“The 40-year-old Nigerian, known as Mike, is believed to be behind scams totaling more than $60 million involving hundreds of victims worldwide. In one case a target was conned into paying $15.4 million,” the statement said.
It added that the fraud network – which includes at least 40 other suspects – specialized in compromising email accounts of its targets, romance scams, and money-laundering activities across the world, mostly targeting small- and medium-sized businesses.
The statement added: “The main two types of scam run by the 40-year-old targeted businesses were payment diversion fraud – where a supplier’s email would be compromised and fake messages would then be sent to the buyer with instructions for payment to a bank account under the criminal’s control – and ‘CEO fraud.’
“In CEO fraud, the email account of a high-level executive is compromised and a request for a wire transfer is sent to another employee who has been identified as responsible for handling these requests. The money is then paid into a designated bank account held by the criminal.”
Last month, Nigeria’s Communications Minister Adebayo Shittu alerted that the country was losing roughly $450 million to cyber scams.
“Reports and statistics reaching me show that Nigeria is losing about $450 million annually due to computer and Internet-related fraud,” he told a seminar on the country's New Cybercrime Prevention and Prohibition Act 2015.
The law, passed in May 2015, was Nigeria’s response to a spike in Internet fraud such as cyberterrorism, electronics card-related fraud, identity theft, and hacking into and stealing from people's bank accounts.
Conviction under this law means a jail term of 10 years or more, and possibly life imprisonment, depending on the nature of the crime.
Several individuals have been convicted of such crimes in past years. The country’s antigraft agency has also prosecuted members of syndicates specializing in international cybercrimes, while dozens have been extradited to answer charges of cybercrimes committed elsewhere.
