In summary
- Nigeria’s EFCC arrested 792 suspects linked to romance scams and fraudulent Cryptocurrency investments.
- The operations included foreign collusion, high-tech equipment, and phishing training to deceive global victims.
- The move reinforces Nigeria’s commitment to combat fraud, targeting international networks involved in cybercrimes.
Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested nearly 800 people across the country in connection with cryptocurrency romance scams, the agency reported.
EFCC Chief Executive Ola Olukoyede recently announced that the regulator’s enforcement actions led to the arrest of 792 suspects allegedly involved in cryptocurrency investment frauds and romance scams.
The arrests occurred Tuesday as part of an undercover operation into an alleged criminal den located in a seven-story building “that could be mistaken for the corporate headquarters of a financial establishment,” he said.
The suspects are yet to be charged and the EFCC is yet to reveal how much money it believes the romance scam operation stole from the victims.
He went on to say that the building had been equipped with “high-end computers,” adding that agents recovered “500 SIM cards on the fifth floor alone.”
According to investigators, many of the scammers working there had been assigned foreign phone numbers, mainly German and Italian.
“Their Nigerian accomplices were recruited by the foreign ringleaders to search for victims online through phishing, targeting mainly Americans, Canadians, Mexicans and several others from European countries,” Olukoyede said in the press release.
Workers in the fraud operation were given computers and cell phones, then went through “a two-week induction on how to impersonate foreign women in romance scam chat rooms and convince victims to invest in their cryptocurrency investment scam.” employers”.
But once the Nigerian workers managed to hook a victim, the operation’s foreign managers took control in the final stages of the scams and “blocked their Nigerian accomplices from the network.”
Many of the people arrested were foreigners. Among them are 148 Chinese citizens, 40 Filipinos, two from Kharzartan, one Pakistani and one Indonesian. The foreigners were allegedly involved in training Nigerians on how to start romance and investment scams.
“Foreigners are taking advantage of our nation’s unfortunate reputation as a haven for fraud to establish a base here and disguise their heinous criminal enterprises,” Olukoyede said. “But as this operation has shown, there will be no hiding places for criminals in Nigeria.”
The announcement follows a similar report coming from Asia. In mid-October, Hong Kong police busted a deepfake romance scam that defrauded individuals of approximately $46 million through fraudulent cryptocurrency investments.
Edited by Stacy Elliott.
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