THE long arm of the law has caught up with a suspected Nigerian female fraudster on the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) wanted list.
The Head of the Benin Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Mukhtar Bello who disclosed this yesterday in Benin said that the arrest of the suspected cyber fraudster in Edo State was possible through intelligence sharing between the EFCC and FBI.
Bello who spoke on behalf of Mr Ibrahim Magu, the Acting Chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu explained that the suspected scammer was involved in obtaining and stealing people’s identification information which she sent to her American collaborators.
The anti-graft boss who refused to disclose the identity of the female suspect accused her of being in league with her foreign counterparts in the dark web.
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Bello said: “We do not want to state the woman’s name so as not to compromise the investigation. The Commission is resolute in exterminating cybercrime and bringing to book all those involved in this despicable activity.”
Continuing, he said that her American partners used the information to file for the fraudulent tax return with the Internal Revenue Service.
Bello stated the suspect received her CT through Bitcoin and about 185 Bitcoin currently worth N656m was traced to her.
Meanwhile, the Benin Zone of the EFCC has also nabbed a cybercriminal and two siblings involved in Business Email Compromise (BEC).
Bello disclosed that the commission now routinely search suspected scammers’ email addresses especially official business email addresses; create a phishing link and compromising the process in order to defraud unsuspecting victims.
While reiterating the determination of the anti-graft agency to tackle cybercrime, he added that the three suspects will soon be docked.
He said: “As part of our strategic plans to tackle this malaise, the Benin Zonal Office, from January to date, through intelligence raided the hideout of internet fraudsters in our jurisdiction-Edo, Delta and the Ondo States.
“These raids led to the arrest of 113 internet fraudsters. While the prosecution of many of the cases is ongoing in court, we have so far secured 53 convictions in the period under review.”
Over 30 exotic cars, charms, laptops, mobile phones, flash drives, according to him, were recovered from the suspects ahead of a trial in court.
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