A new tactic used by 419 fraudsters of ripping Nigerians their cash has been unraveled, as they now swap sims to empty peoples bank accounts.
The Oyo State Police Command, disclosed the new trick yesterday, following the arrest of 10 suspects: Omotayo Azeez, 29, Olufade Abdulgafar, 33, Adesina Peter, 32, Odugbesan Gbenga, 39, Shiyanbola Harry, 32, Effiog Udofia, 52, Arowosegbe Adewale, 43, Adesanlu Kayode, 32, Onasile Abiola, 25, and Temitope Fatai, 21.
The Oyo Sate Police Commissioner, Shina Olukolu, said:
“On March 14, Adeniyi Ige, the Security Manager of Airtel Network Limited, reported that his company received complaints from customers regarding withdrawal of various amounts of money from their bank accounts, through fraudulent SIM cards swapping.
.The complainants included Prof. Olapade James, the Dean, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Ibadan, who reported that on February 21, he experienced loss of signal on his line.
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Following this, he said he started receiving notification of debit alerts from his bank account via email, adding that N180,000 was fraudulently withdrawn from his bank account.
Also one Godwin Unigbe reported that on February 22, N3m was fraudulently withdrawn from his bank account. Benjamin Udo Bassey reported that N460,000 was fraudulently withdrawn from his account between February 20 and 21.”
Following the reports, internal findings were made and traced the fraudulent SIM card swapping to a call centre to network service providers, ISON BPO stationed in Ibadan.
The discovery led to the arrest of three workers of ISON directly involved in the fraudulent act. Further findings led to the arrest of seven other suspects.
On how they the fraudsters operate, the police commissioner said that they will will call their unsuspecting victim, ask for certain information and as they are provided with the information, what follows is that the victims phone will go blank in network.
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After some minutes, the network will be restored then the victim will begin receiving debit alerts via email.
What it implies is that the fraudsters have swapped the victim’s SIM card.
The police commissioner charged Nigerians not to give information to anyone you they don’t know.”
