The Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission on Monday released a statement addressing the rise
of identity theft in Nigeria. Photos of a suspected female fraudster on the run
was also shared. Read below.
The much talked
about ATM fraudsters are not resting on the oars. They are all over the place
laying siege to any susceptible victim. These criminals go about fleecing
unwary members of the public with their ingenious, ever-changing modes of
operations. The latest being the infamous identity theft.
Before now, cloning
and PIN harvesting through electronic chips cleverly concealed in the Automated
Teller Machine (ATM), was the universal mode. Over time, the tricks and decoys
to entrap their victims keep changing and have assumed a disturbing dimension.
The Ibadan Zonal
Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is on the trail
of a suspected ATM fraudster, who goes by the name Akinade Tofunmi. Her trade in
stock is identity theft. Her duty post is any ATM Point and Point of Sales
(POS) machines across the country.
However, she does
not ‘work’ during the official hours of the week rather; she operates late in
the night when all bank transactions had closed and preferably over the weekend
when her ‘prospective’ victims might not be able to alert the banks for any
unauthorised transaction. In her last operation, within twenty four hours; this
fraudster who operates with the identity of her victims succeeded to have raked
in about three million (N3m) within 24 hours.
Dateline was Friday,
June 3rd, 2016, at about the close of work. A woman simply identified as Alhaja
and her husband who was waiting in the car wanted to use an ATM somewhere in
Ibadan, Oyo State, when Tofunmi noticed that the woman limps. Pretending to be
polite and cultured, she offered to assist her with the transaction on the ATM.
Unaware of the intention behind the pious approach, she gave the fraudster her
ATM card and divulged her PIN. Smartly, the fraudster quickly checked the
balance in the account which had one million, seven hundred and forty nine
thousand, twenty six naira and seven kobo (N1, 749, 026. 07). After the
intended withdrawal of N20, 000:00, the fraudster swapped the card and gave
Alhaja a fake ATM card. Oblivious of the swap, she left with her husband.
Shortly before
midnight, the fraudster started the ‘harvest’ of her booty. She withdrew one
hundred and thirty thousand naira. Having exceeded the daily withdrawing limit
for that day, she waited for a few minutes to the following day which was a
Saturday. Shortly after midnight, she made another rounds of withdrawals to the
tune of one hundred and fifty thousand naira which was also the daily limit for
that day. However, Alhaja and her husband had no one to run or call that night
to save the situation when the debit alerts start coming in torrent.
In a desperate need
of where and how to empty the balance in the account, she went to a night club
where she met a motorcycle transporter, popularly known as Okada whom she
approached for a help. Her decoy was that she had enough money in her account
but could not access it having exceeded her daily withdrawal limit. She showed
the bike man her balance and pleaded with him to give her his ATM card, account
details and PIN for a quick teller transfer from her (Alhaja’s) account to the
bike man’s account. With that, she has been able to secure some of Alhaja’s
money in the bike man’s account thereby stealing the identity of the unsuspecting
bike man.
At the early hours
of that Saturday morning, she asked the bike man to take her to a hotel with an
intention to further steal the identity of the hotelier for another movement of
the money. At the hotel reception while paying for her accommodation which was
N10, 000 (Ten thousand naira) for one night, she deliberated credited the
hotel’s account with one hundred and one thousand naira (N101, 000) feigning a
mistake and demanded a refund of ninety-one thousand naira (N91, 000) balance
of an overpayment. This was also done with Alhaja’s ATM card through the POS
machine at the Hotel.
To further conceal
her identity, she provided fake personal details in the hotel and gave the
hotel the bike man’s account detail when the hotel management requested for an
account to deposit the refund.
All these happened
on Saturday; hence, Alhaja and her husband are still in dilemma with no help in
sight to stop the transactions in the account. By Sunday, Alhaja’s money had
moved to the fraudster both in cash and through transfer to the bike man
account domicile in the same bank.
All these while, the
fraudster was in possession of both Alhaja the first victim and the bike man,
the second victim’s ATM cards. Later the following day, Monday, the bike man
could no longer reach the fraudster on phone; he (the bike man) then went to
the bank to request for another ATM card. It was later discovered in the bank
that part of Alhaja’s money was transferred to the bike man’s account. He was
arrested by the bank and He’s now helping the EFCC operatives to track down the
fraudster. Investigations have revealed that this same fraudster had stolen the
identities of other victims earlier and had absconded to, Ilorin, Kwara State.
Instances of
Tofunmi’s nefarious activities have also been spotted in other parts of the
country particularly Port Harcourt City. The Commission is hereby seeking the
cooperation and support of public spirited members of the society to please
help unveil the identity of this fraudster. Her face, though with different
disguises, is on display for anyone who knows her to please contact any of our
offices across the six geopolitical zones and Abuja. She must be apprehended,
who knows the next victim?
Besides, it is
imperative to reiterate the need to be careful with our ATM cards and PERSONAL
IDENTIFICATION NUMBER (PIN). On no account should we divulge any information
about our account details to anyone. The criminals, ATM fraudsters are on the
loose, taking advantage of people’s insensitivity and carelessness. Pictures
show Akinade Tofunmi as captured by CCTV Of the bank and Hotel she operated
from.
Source: lindaikejisblog
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