EFCC Arrests 193 Foreign Nationals in Lagos Crypto Scam Crackdown
Multi-Story Building Raided, International Cybercrime Network Dismantled
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested 193 foreign nationals in a massive raid on a seven-storey building in Victoria Island, uncovering a complex cybercrime network targeting international victims.
The operation on December 10 targeted a building on Oyin Jolayemi Street, known as the ‘Big Leaf Building’, where investigators found an extensive infrastructure for conducting online fraud.
EFCC spokesman Wilson Uwujaren reported that the arrested suspects included 148 Chinese, 40 Filipinos, two Kazakhs, one Pakistani, and one Indonesian. The syndicate specialized in cryptocurrency fraud and romance scams targeting victims from the United States, Canada, Mexico, and European countries.
According to Uwujaren, “The breakthrough followed actionable intelligence and months of surveillance and monitoring the activities of the syndicate.
“Among the foreigners arrested are 148 Chinese, 40 Filipinos, two Kharzartans, one Pakistani, one Indonesian.
“Investigation established that the foreign nationals use the facility at 7, Oyin Jolayemi Street, which could be mistaken for a corporate headquarters of a financial establishment to train their Nigerian accomplices on how to initiate romance and investment scams and also use the identities of Nigerians to perpetrate their criminal activities.
“All the floors are equipped with high-end desktop computers. On the 5th floor alone, investigators recovered 500 SIM cards of local telcos that were bought for criminal purposes.
“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.
“Investigation revealed that the criterion for recruiting these young Nigerians is proficiency in the use of computers, especially typing skill.”
“Those who passed the test are given desktop computers and mobile devices and then taken through a two-week induction on how to impersonate foreign females in romance scam chats and convince victims to invest in their employers’ Cryptocurrency investment scam.
“Once the Nigerians are able to win the confidence of would-be victims, the foreigners would take over the actual task of defrauding the victims and proceed to block their Nigerian accomplices from the network. This would then leave them in the dark about the transaction.”
Uwujaren stated that the operation proves the Nigerian government’s dedication to combating financial crimes. He challenged perceptions about the origin of international fraud, noting that foreign actors are exploiting the country’s reputation.
“Further investigation is ongoing to establish the extent of the scam and the accomplices, including the likelihood of any collaboration with organized international fraud cells. The commission is working closely with its foreign partners in this regard.”
He listed the items recovered from the suspects include desktop computers, mobile phones, laptop computers, and cars, adding that the suspects have made statements, while their systems have also been screened.
“They are currently being held with a valid remand warrant and will be arraigned in court in the coming days. What is, however, clear from this arrest is that the notion that Nigerians are behind the tonnes of frauds emanating from our country is not correct.
“Foreigners are taking advantage of our nation’s unfortunate reputation as a haven of frauds to establish a foothold here to disguise their atrocious criminal enterprises, he said.
