A banker, Mr. Christian Amechi, working with a new generation bank has been arrested by operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and Rapid Response Squad (RRS) for allegedly assisting suspected fraudsters to hack into bank customers’ accounts and stealing millions.
The accused, until his arrest, was serving at the Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) customer’s care unit of the bank, located on Victoria Island, Lagos State.
Those arrested along with Amechi are Oyozoje Joseph (30), Nelson Matthew Eugari, Henry Omogbemi (31) and Ene Mona Gabriel.
Police said that Amechi was arrested penultimate Wednesday along with four other members of the syndicate.
The state Commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgal, said the syndicate had allegedly removed over N20 million from accounts belonging to different customers.
Amechi was said to have been arrested after the police team arrested the leader of a gang of pickpockets, Mr. Akeem Apejoye, at the Ajegunle area of the metropolis.
Singing like a bird after his arrest, Apejoye revealed how Amechi and his syndicate encouraged him to steal phones. He further disclosed that Amechi and others’ interest was mainly the SIM cards of the stolen phones.
Apejoye led policemen to the homes of those encouraging him to steal phones.
He said: “Honestly, I didn’t know Amechi and his friends used the SIM cards to remove money from the accounts of customers. They, however, used to buy drinks at joints for me. Amechi and I grew up together at Ajegunle. I enjoy being with them, especially at the weekends.”
Apejoye said that through picking victims’ pockets, he had been able to establish a boutique at Ajegunle.
“My shop is located on Ojo Road.”
Amechi, who attended the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), said that he read Banking and Finance. The suspect introduced himself as ATM Card System Analyst.
He said: “All that was needed for the transfer to succeed is the customer’s SIM card. Any account holder, who does online transaction, has his or her BVN number stored on his or her phone. I grew up in Ajegunle and I know almost all members of the syndicate. I know them on the street; I was introduced into the business by one of my friends known as Ose boy and DJ.”
According to him, aside from assisting the syndicate to generate information of account holders, he also provided telephone numbers of victims.
He added: “Sometimes, we would do a ‘welcome back’ of some of these telephone numbers. What happens in this case is that the original owner of the line would not be able to make or receive calls. All calls or text messages on such numbers can only be accessed by the person who did the welcome back. Members of the syndicate are mostly staff of telecommunication providers. These set of people are the ones who do the ‘welcome back’ on any number to be profiled. My greatest regret was when my aged mother came to see me while I was in police custody. I pray that God will give her the health and courage to bear the pains. I can’t even begin to imagine what she would be going through right now.”
Another member of the gang, Joseph (30), an engineer who graduated from the University of Lagos (UNILAG), said the he had made well over N10 million from the fraud. Joseph said that he joined the syndicate out of frustration.
As at the time of Joseph’s arrest, he had over N5 million in one of his accounts.
It was learnt that Joseph is presently on the Wanted List of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Another account, which he operated with one of the new generation banks, has been frozen.
The role of Omagbemi, 31, is to operate a network of bogus names, in order to launder the proceeds, while Amechi, allegedly launders the cash.
Edgal said: “Members of the gang were all involved in a scheme to defraud account holders of millions of naira. These men used to target accounts with huge sums of money. To identify those rich accounts, Amechi, an employee of a bank, was recruited to assist the syndicate. He would then assist in breaching the security protocols in order to steal the money. The money would be transferred to accomplices who would swiftly transfer the money through a number of bogus businesses before the money would eventually disappear.
“Once the syndicate transfers the money from a victim’s account, the money would then be laundered through series of bogus names before being moved into individual accounts to prevent it being recovered. One of the victims lost more than N2 million after the gang member used of a fake ‘welcome back’ telephone number in the account holder’s name to set up two transfers over three days. A customer with N200 million in the bank only escaped becoming a victim after they were arrested.
“The syndicate comprised of three splinter groups visiting choice locations in the state to rob members of the public of their phones. The six suspects were arrested by the Decoy Team of RRS. The group handed over the SIMs to another set of people that would through special computer Apps get the bank account details of the owners and thereafter get the account balances. The balance of the account is now transferred into different accounts sourced by another set of suspects. Nwanze Ifeanyi (27), Martins Achi (27) and Solomon Dike (31) rob people of their phones and fled the scene on motor cycle. Muritala Mohammed (28) aka Swallow through computer Apps retrieved the names, bank details of the original owner of the SIM, including BVN. The recovered details are used to determine the account balance.
“Moneys in the account are transferred into different accounts sourced by the third group involving Shamson Mustapha (25) and Ali Hassan (27). The activities of the group were brought to the attention of RRS after they stole the phone of one Yinka at a birthday party in Egbeda area. The group worked on Yinka’s SIM card and transferred N1,153,000 from her FCMB account into the following accounts; FCMB-Account number 1888032010 belonging to Ikechukwu Enyadike; Diamond Bank-Account number 00706675464 belonging to Oyinuro Victor and UBA-Account number 2096578968 belonging to Joseph Blessing Benita. The owner of the account only got to know of the transactions when she inserted the replaced SIM into a new phone.”
Edgal disclosed that further investigations into the activities of the group revealed that the gang also transferred N120,000 from the Diamond account 2000050986 belonging to Chima Mbakwe of No.3, BM Anyawu Close, Iba New Site.
Muhammed, a senior secondary school (SS 2) dropout, confessed to have started hacking into bank accounts in June 2017.
He said: “My first hit was N20,000 and the banks accounts that I hacked were UBA, GTB and Access banks. All the SIMs that I have worked on should be up to 47.”
Exhibits recovered from the gang included two laptops, 10 SIM cards among other things.
