Joy Anyim
Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested 402 cyber crime suspects, in Lagos State, this is as it declared the Lekki area of the state as a hotbed of cybercrime.
According to a statement issued by the Commission, on Friday, most of the arrested suspects were youngsters, who were either undergraduates, recent graduates and dropouts.
It gave the breakdown of the arrest made between April and June, saying Ajah accounted for 24 suspects, Oniru and Sangotedo had 14 and 13 suspects respectively, Badore had eight suspects, Ikoyi and Eko Atlantic had two and one suspect each, Ikorodu and Alagbado on the Lagos Mainland accounted for the remainder.
The statement read, “Lekki, the fast-developing upper middle class area of Lagos Metropolis, is emerging as the new hub of internet-related fraud. Data from the investigation activities of the Lagos Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for the second quarter of 2021, indicates that Lekki District is the preferred location for all manner of cyber fraud syndicates.
“Between April and June, 2021, the Advance Fee Fraud and Cyber Crime Sections of the Command recorded a total of 402 internet-related fraud arrests. While the Advance Fee Fraud Section was responsible for 243 arrests, the Cyber Crime Section executed 18 sting operations which resulted in 159 arrests, from which 13 convictions have so far been recorded.
“Of the 159 suspects arrested by the Cyber Crime Section, 70 are from Lekki, comprising communities such as Ajah, Badore, Victoria Garden City, Sangotedo and Oniru.
“The suspects are mostly millennials, with 82 of them aged between 25-34 years, which speaks to the fact that most of the individuals arrested are either still in school, recent graduates or university drop outs.
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“Analysis of the data from the Cyber Crime Section further shows that the dominant form of internet crime is Dating Scam/Online Dating Scam/Romance Scam. Sixty Four percent of individuals arrested are involved in romance scam, followed closely by ‘Middle Man Scam’ and ‘Picking’ which account for 8 percent and 7 percent respectively of those arrested.
“The 64 percent involved in the dating scam benefitted to the tune of N8, 310,000; $349,290 USD; £ 900; €10 and Cryptocurrency 0.17513. Other typologies of fraud identified include forgery, possession of fraudulent documents, spamming, credit card fraud, impersonation, rental scam, loan fraud, Business Email Compromise, Hacking, stealing, cheque scam, phishing, and money laundering.”
The Commission said the data also revealed gift cards at 39 percent as the prevalent method employed by the suspects to access their illicit funds, followed by bank transfers at 27 percent and Cryptocurrency at 21 percent.
It was also learnt that a total of $12, 512.49USD was recovered from the e-wallet accounts of four suspects within the period.
