Follow Us on Google
The Ibadan office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested two suspected internet fraudsters who specialise in stealing personal identities online to defraud foreign nationals.
The suspects – Akeju, Crown Babatunde, male, 31, and Agbanah, Toba, male, 35 – were arrested at different locations in Ibadan following intelligence gathered on their alleged involvement in internet fraud.
After careful examination of data and documents retrieved from them, the Commission was able to establish enough ground for prosecuting the suspects for acts contrary to the provisions of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc) Act of 2015, saying they would be accordingly charged to court soon.
Related: Nigeria and the FBI criminal list
Akeju specialised in data mining from online sites, and was in possession of personal information and addresses of several Americans who have fallen victim to his fraud at different times.
The suspect usually operated with two email accounts – one personal and another supposedly official – to penetrate his victims and dispossess them of their hard-earned money.
The EFCC’s investigations also established Akeju’s deployment of a fake identity to engage foreigners in romantic affairs with the intention of defrauding them.
Other News
Findings revealed various lodgments from his foreign victims into his Nigerian bank accounts.
Agbanah’s case is not too different. He had admitted in his confessional statement with the Commission to have falsely representing himself as one Chris Dan, a 40-year-old Briton, working with the United Nations.
He confessed to having used the White man’s picture to lure his victims into romantic relationships and thereafter solicit money from them allegedly to enable him pay for his flight ticket to pay them scheduled visits. After much familiarisation, he would then device other tricks to further swindle them.
The two suspects are still helping the Commission with relevant information for further investigation into the activities of their other at-large partners.
At the point of his arrest, the EFCC recovered an iPhone XS Max and a Toyota Venza automobile from Akeju, while Agbanah was in possession of a Toyota Venza, a Toyota Camry, two aapple MacBooks, an Apple Ipad, one iPhone XS Max, one iPhone 5, one Infinix phone, two hard drives and a HP printer.
