The operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, have arrested 5 internet fraudsters following a raid at their hideout on July 3, 2019.
The suspects however, claimed to be bloggers and experts in bitcoin business at the point of their arrest at Barnawa, Kaduna State.
They have been identified as Ibrahim Idris, Sadiq Idris, Martins Abeku, Blessing Nicolas and Esther Micheal. They were accused of creating fake FaceBook pages, and also using display pictures and names belonging to mostly foreigners to deceive unsuspecting victims mostly females of white nationality.
The statement from the EFCC reads;
The Kaduna Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC on July 3, 2019 made yet another arrest of five suspected cyber criminals known as yahoo-yahoo at Barnawa Kaduna State. Their modus operandi was to pose as United States Soldiers on peace keeping mission in Afghanistan, particularly on FaceBook platform.
At the point of their arrest, they all claimed to be bloggers and experts in bitcoin business. The suspected fraudsters who are from Edo and Kaduna states include two females and three males, all in their mid twenties and attending various universities both within and outside Nigeria.
They stated that they operate by creating fake FaceBook pages using display pictures and names belonging to mostly foreigners in order to deceive unsuspecting victims mostly females of white nationality.
Another mode of operation to is link up with their other conspirators known as Pickers residing in US and Ghana to help in receiving their loot via their dollar accounts domiciled in the US for onwards transfer to their boss in Nigeria after they must have duped their victims. They added that usually, they give 30% of their loot to these pickers while the remaining 70% is shared among the remaining members.
The fraudsters parade themselves with names like James Scott, Ibro wire (Ibrahim Idris AKA Ibro), Lious James, carista Sadiq (Sadiq Idris), Griffen James, CBN Martins (Martins Abeku), others arrested are Blessing Nicolas (Phil Nicholas), Esther Micheal (Xta Mikelz).
Items recovered include a yellow ELEPAC generator, 2 HP and 1 Del laptop, 2 Huawei Network wifi, phones, wrist watch, sim cards and ATM cards. They shall be prosecuted as soon as investigation is concluded.
