The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has dismantled a cyber-crime syndicate which allegedly extorted millions of naira from job seekers through a fraudulent website, an official said in Abuja yesterday.
The service paraded the five suspects alongside five bank officials and two National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members, who allegedly swindled job seekers, in Abuja.
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has dismantled a cyber-crime syndicate which allegedly extorted millions of naira from job seekers through a fraudulent website, an official said in Abuja yesterday.
The service paraded the five suspects alongside five bank officials and two National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members, who allegedly swindled job seekers, in Abuja.
Addressing a news conference at the headquarters of NCS in Abuja, an Assistant Comptroller of Customs, Mr Tahiru Musa, said forensic experts in Canada and the U.S. assisted the service to crack the syndicate group.
He said the syndicate was traced to a company, BIIS, at No 110 Tetlow Road, Owerri, while the website was hosted by an Ibadan-based company, Skyskay System Limited.
Also, a commercial bank account was opened using the account name “Customs Wuse’’, in Aba, Abia, which the syndicate used to defraud job seekers.
He said the syndicate allegedly lured prospective applicants to part with various sums, using the service recruitment exercise conducted in 2009 and 2012 as bait.
“The service has received numerous complaints from prospective applicants, who claimed that they were lured into paying various sums of monies.
“These complaints claimed that they got information from a purported website of the Nigeria Customs Service. “Some got their contacts from a Facebook page allegedly belonging to the Comptroller-General of Customs,’’ he said.
Musa told reporters that preliminary investigation conducted by the service revealed that the website and Facebook pages used to perpetuate the activities were fake.
He said the service promptly exposed these activities and warned job seekers not to fall victim of the scam.
According to Musa, testimonies extracted from various victims of the scam and analysis prompted the service to “go beyond conventional method associated with common crimes.
“The use of fake website, creation of fake Facebook accounts and high level collusion of commercial banks necessitated the use of cutting edge technology to catch up with the evil perpetrators.
“The service, therefore, deployed our forensic experts to launch investigations in collaboration with experts in Canada and U.S. to crack the syndicate.’’
The officer said investigations from the forensic team revealed that the design and operation of the website were masterminded by one, Umoh Moses, who also used pseudo names, such as Prince Moses, Prince Umoh.
The principal suspect was linked to the operations of fake customs websites, such as “nigeriacustomservice.net’’ and “nigeriacustomsservice.info.’’
According to Musa, Umoh was arrested alongside three others, Obinwanne Donatus, Abua Steven and Duru Chidi.
The three suspects were named as operators of the Owerri-based company and their firm was traced by the forensic experts operating from Canada and the U.S.
Also, the fake sites were hosted by one Kayode Ogundele of the Ibadan-based Skyskay limited.
Musa said a bank manager and four others in Aba were arrested for “high level collusion and failure to discharge their obligations of Know Your Customers (KYC).’’
He said that the five laptops, five mobile phones and one central processing unit retrieved from the suspects would undergo further forensic analysis.
Meanwhile, in a related case, the service also announced that it arrested two serving NYSC members, Sanusi Abubakar and Hassan Maiyaki for involvement in “money-for-job-scandal.
Musa said the suspects were lured into Abuja by the service operatives to collect N400, 000 for two customs recruitment letters.
“Their victims, who were to have been defrauded in Sokoto, insisted that payments would only be made after sighting the original copies,’’ he said.
Musa said in yet another case that one Hassan Haruna, who allegedly duped three job seekers N3 million in the guise of helping them to secure employment, was arrested in Apapa, Lagos.
He acknowledged the “high-level support’’ of the leadership of Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) in the investigations.
He advised members of the public to be vigilant over the activities of fraudsters, who used online platforms to extort money from victims in exchange for “fake auction papers and contracts.
“Another recent trend is name dropping of principal aides of the CG as baits for the unsuspecting victims. “Members of the public are to note there is no service provided by the Customs that requires payment of un-receipted facilitatingfees of any kind,’’ Musa said.
The officer warned that the service would not hesitate to sanction “insider collaborators’’ in the scandals.
“The Nigeria Customs Service does not harbour or protect any inside collaborators; investigation is ongoing and if investigations point to anybody who colluded with these (suspects), he would be properly dealt with in accordance with the law,’’ he said.
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