SEE NIGERIA’S MILLIONAIRE STUDENT FRAUDSTERS

Before he met his waterloo some months
ago, 30-year-old Hope Olusegun Aroke
lived in the elite 1004 Housing Estate,
Victoria Island, Lagos. Aroke, an
undergraduate in a Malaysian university,
had the world at his beck and call, as he
could afford just about anything that
meant class. For him, provision was
probably just another successful scam
away. And the race to maintain the social
status that fraud had allegedly earned
him could never end. In his garage was a
fleet of posh cars and SUVs, all of
Mercedes-Benz brand. Though a tenant,
he successfully outshone the status of his
co-residents. To many, the young man
had done well for himself by a dint of
hard work. In some sense, Aroke was
working hard, but as a suspected serial
scammer. His busy neighbours barely
noticed his unusual schedule, but many
were irked by his exceptional flamboyant
lifestyle. Most times, when neighbours
were out to work, Aroke stayed indoor in
company with other young men, who
were later discovered to be his fraud cell
suspects.
These young men included his
apprentices and internet scam partners.
The operation that marred Aroke’s merry-
making living would have shot up his net
worth by several notches. Going by the
revelation of the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission, he had successfully
carried out the scam operations worth
N55m on unsuspecting members of the
public. He, however, became unfortunate
while trying to conceal the nature of the
proceeds by converting it to foreign
currency in partnership with Ibrahim
Tafida, a Bureau de Change operator. He
was eventually nabbed by the team of the
EFCC in Lagos. Last year, 25-year-old
Sunkanmi Odewale, a 200-level
undergraduate of Mechanical Engineering,
Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ogun State,
a suspected fraudster, breezed into an
automart and bought a Toyota Venza for
N4m. Before, he was picked up in Ibadan,
Oyo State, three months ago, he was
alleged to be notorious for regularly
swindling unsuspecting members of the
public via the internet. His N4m Toyota
Venza was the latest of his collections of
luxury toys allegedly acquired from the
proceeds of cyber crimes. He, however,
forfeited it and other valuables worth
millions, which were seized during the
arrest.
The EFCC said he was currently facing
prosecution. Other kingpins in cyber crime
in Ibadan, Oyo State, according to EFCC,
are 300 level students, Olowofola Tolu
and Ekundayo Damilola, both of Lead City
University, Ibadan. They are studying
Economics and Computer Sciences
respectively. They were alleged to be the
brains behind successful cyber crimes in
the state before they were arrested
around Oluyole Estate extension in
Ibadan. Both of them made good money
from the business such that they paraded
exotic cars among other things. Other
boys believed to hold the area in terms of
cyber crimes operations and training of
intending members according to EFCC are
Adelabu Kolawole, HND II student of
Purchasing and Supply Department,
Ibadan Polytechnic and Bankole Fisayo,
Ordinary Diploma II student of Marketing
Department, Osun State Polytechnic, Iree.
Their valuables running into tens of
millions of naira were seized by the EFCC,
which said that they were all being
prosecuted. Investigation revealed that
more young people particularly
undergraduates, now have the
wherewithal to afford luxury items such
as exotic cars, live in hotels for weeks,
buy classy homes and throw lavish
parties where expensive brands of wines
and spirits are offered. They also travel to
choice countries of the world and frolic
with the hottest girls in town. They live in
such affluence that will make an average
worker with decades of meritorious
service cringe. WE learnt that usually, they
are undergraduates, predominantly young
men enrolled to study different courses in
both Nigerian and foreign tertiary
institutions.
These undergraduate scammers and
internet fraudsters are the current toast of
their various campuses. Their friends,
course mates and distant admirers,
especially the ladies, all wish to grab a
portion of their well-advertised wealth.
Using the internet and other information
and communication, these savvy youths,
often successfully dupe greedy people.
Laptops, mobile telephones, flash drives,
external hard drives, printers and so on,
are their work implements. Since they
usually don’t operate from an identifiable
office or from fixed residential addresses,
they cart away many people’s financial
fortunes forever without pointing a gun or
being physically present. They operate
most times through a network of
connections across country borders,
making it possible for a person to fall
victim at any location. Investigation
revealed that the colony of internet
fraudsters, also known as Yahoo Yahoo,
is growing to match the dynamism in
information and communication
technology. This also poses greater
challenge to crime detecting agencies in
Nigeria such as the EFCC. During some
sting operations based on internet-
prompted information, the EFCC recently
arrested another five suspected
fraudsters in Enugu State. They are: 27-
year-old Uche Nwakor; 30-year-old
Oluchukwu Ejikeme; 28-year-old Ifeanyi
Ejikeme; 30-year-old Nnamani
Ikechukwu; and Ibe Kodili.
They were arrested at their expensive
houses at No 26 and 42, Chimaobi Uba
Street, GRA, Enugu. The team is said to
be “serial scammers,” having defrauded
several victims. Items seized from them
where they were perfecting how to get the
next victim are: eight exotic cars, nine
laptops, 21 mobile phones, internet
routers, drivers’ licenses and international
passports. Two months ago, the game
was over for notorious internet fraudster,
Wale Olaide, who specialised in
defrauding members of the public through
bank credit alerts. Popularly called Wale
Dollar in his clique, he had great tentacles
as his business transversed the shores of
Nigeria. Although he had successfully
executed bigger deals, which had earned
him a comfortable life, he came crashing
over a N5m deal involving two brothers
Abdulhamid Abubakar, based in Nigeria
and Hashim Abubakar based in Togo.
They are both into BDC business. Under
the pretext that he wanted to do genuine
business with them, he contacted the
Togo-based operator, asking for his
Nigerian bank account number, which he
authorised his brother to give him. Olaide
was supposed to pay in N5m to purchase
the CFA Francs equivalent. But when he
got the account details, rather than send
the money as agreed, he sent a false
credit alert notifying the BDC operators
that his account had credited at the Seme
border branch and so he released the
equivalent to him. He was shocked to find
out the next day that his bankers couldn’t
trace such payments made into his
account. The EFCC said it took
investigative initiative to arrest Olaide,
who it described as “a member of the
deadly syndicate involved in duping
unsuspecting members of the public.” It
described fraudulent credit banking
notification as a new trend in criminality
by fraudsters and warned the public to be
careful. The EFCC Ag. Head, Media and
Publicity, Wilson Uwujaren, told Saturday
PUNCH that it was not in the character of
fraudsters to buy lands or build houses.
He said, “They seldom even buy houses
or have permanent addresses because of
the nature of their activities. They often
spend money on exotic cars, throw
parties and generally squander the money
on things that are not fixed. All the people
arrested for such crimes are usually
made to face the law.” Uwujaren said
there were signs that could put one on the
guard. “If for instance somebody you
have never met in person begins to pester
you about your personal banking details
online, chances are that the person may
be a potential scammer. “Also when a
total stranger begins to make business
proposal that look too good to be true,
you better watch it,” he said. He said a
good number of scammers had been
prosecuted and jailed; others had to flee
the country to neighbouring countries.
He however said that there was still more
work to be done. He said EFCC’s
conviction profile was dominated by
internet and advance fee fraud cases,
adding that the Advance Fee Fraud and
Other Related Offenses Act 2006
prescribed a minimum of seven and
maximum of 20 years jail term for
advance fee fraud offenses. He admitted
that scammers were mainly youngsters
but not limited to any social strata and
educational backgrounds. An inside
source, who understands the mode of
operation of internet fraudsters told our
correspondent that the commission
depended mainly on raids until it had a
breakthrough in technology. The EFCC
source, who preferred to remain
anonymous, said the technology called
Eagle Claw, was designed by a young
Nigerian, who landed in the EFCC net
after he was deported from India some
years ago for successfully hacking the
country’s military website.
He said the commission employed his
services to help it understand the
workings of internet fraudsters and he
eventually designed a technology with
some programmed language that sniffs
and detects mails suspected to be from
fraudsters. “Once our technology sniffs
those codes, the mail is hijacked and we
start investigation from there. “Under the
former administration, EFCC was able to
arrest 2,000 internet scammers using
Eagle Claw; it runs like a laboratory.
“There was a case when our team of
investigators acted like a ‘white
man’ (prospective victim) and we kept
communicating with the fraudster until
we fixed the Abuja Sheraton Hotel as
meeting point and he simply walked into
a net. “There are other technologies that
we are using to combat cyber crimes as
they evolve.” On their mode of operation
and recruitment procedures, the source
said they operate in cells (splinter groups)
and each cell has a leader, who trains the
new entrants.
He said the apprentices usually lived with
their leaders in big mansions, where they
served them, while undergoing the
rudiments of the game. He said gone were
the days when fraudsters used the cyber
café, because of the fear of being raided,
adding that they now operate from
homes, which makes it difficult to arrest
them, except by intelligence report. He
added that the advent of private use of the
internet through modems and other ISP
channels had made it difficult to trace
scammers without an up to date
technology.
He said that members of the public could
identify a fraudster by some traits, even
though they operate by nick names. “If
you see young people living in
questionable affluence today and appear
broke tomorrow. “If he offers to sell his
N5m car to you at N1.5m and the next
week he has a bigger car, suspect him.
Most times when they don’t have a victim
to milk, they run out of cash and quickly
sell their valuables to continue to live big.
“If the same young man stays at home
when people should be at work, hosting
several girls in his apartment, watch him.
“If he usually moves with some other
group of young men, who most likely stay
the night in his apartment and having so
many ICT gadgets, watch him.” He
however said that what is important is for
members of the public to be careful and
not to be given to greed, as some well-
educated people and even top
government officials had at some time,
fallen prey to them. Asked if it is true that
Yahoo plus brand (charm-backed)
assisted the fraudsters in their criminal
activities, he said, “I don’t believe that
they charm people, I think they are just
internet smart people who work with
technology to people’s disadvantage.”