EFCC Nabs 792 ‘Crypto Fraudsters’ In Biggest Single-Day Arrests
2 years ago 2 min read
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…Detains 193 Chinese, Arabs, Filipinos, Others
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has carried out its largest single-day arrest involving 792 alleged internet fraudsters in Lagos State.
According to the commission’s Director of Public Affairs, Uwujaren Wilson, the arrests occurred on Tuesday, December 10, 2024, inside a seven-story building in Victoria Island, Lagos.
Uwujaren, who spoke at a news conference on Monday, revealed that 148 Chinese, 40 Filipinos, two Kharzartans, one Pakistani, and one Indonesian were among the suspects.
According to him, the foreigners were “training Nigerians on how to initiate romance and investment scams” at the building by creating fictitious profiles for their Nigerian partners to use in romance and bitcoin frauds.
Uwujaren added that the seven-story facility had “high-end” desktop computers on every floor and more than 500 Nigerian telecom carriers’ SIM cards were found there.
The EFCC official said, “their Nigerian accomplices were recruited by the foreign kingpins to prospect for victims online through phishing, targeting mostly Americans, Canadians, Mexicans, and several others from European countries.
“They usually arm them with desktop computers and mobile devices and create fake profiles for them.
“The Nigerian accomplices are equally provided with logs that allow them access to foreign communication lines and victims, which they chat with on WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram.
“They are also assigned WhatsApp accounts linked to foreign telephone numbers, especially from Germany and Italy.
“Their jobs are to engage victims in romantic conversations and phantom business and investment discussions to trick them to shop on the purported online investment shopping platform called www.yooto.com. For those who show interest, activation fees for an account on the platform starts from $35.”
