Police Cracks Cyber Fraud Syndicate Operating in Egbeda Area of Alimosho

The operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of the Lagos State Police Command have busted a six – man syndicate that specializes in robbing Egbeda residents of their mobile phones and turning over its SIM cards to hackers who get hold of the account details of its owners to transfer its balances to their accounts.
The suspects arrested in connection to the conspiracy were apprehended by the Decoy Team of Rapid Response Squad.
Parading the group today at the Command Headquarters, Ikeja, Lagos Mainland, the State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Imohimi Edgal said that the syndicate comprises three splinter groups visiting choice locations in the state to rob members of the public of their phones.
On the mode of operation of the group, Edgal said the syndicate would hand over the sim cards of their target to another set of people who would through special computer apps, get the bank account details of the owners and thereafter get the account balances.
Edgal added that the balance of the account is subsequently transferred into different accounts sourced by another set of suspects.
The suspects, Nwanze Ifeanyi, Martins Achi and Solomon Dike usually rob people of their phones and flee the scene on a motor cycle.
A member of the gang, Muritala Mohammed a.k.a Swallow would go through computer apps, retrieve the names, bank details of the original owner of the SIM including BVN, before recovering the account details and balance of their victims.
“Moneys in the account are transferred into different accounts sourced by the third group involving Shamson Mustapha (25) and Ali Hassan (27)”, Edgal added.
The activities of the group were brought to the attention of the Decoy Team of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) when they stole the phone of a victim identified simply as Yinka at a birthday party in Egbeda, Lagos Mainland, the Police said.
The syndicate had worked on the phone’s sim card and transferred N1, 153,000:00 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.
Investigations into the activities of the group revealed that the gang also transferred N120, 000:00 from the Diamond account 2000050986 belonging to one Chima Mbakwe of No.3, BM Anyawu Close, Iba New Site.
Upon interrogation, Muritala Muhammed, a secondary school dropout of Ojo High Secondary School, Lagos Mainland, told the Police that he ventured into hacking people’s bank accounts in June 2017.
“My first hit was N20,000:00 and the accounts that I hack are UBA, GTB and Access bank,” he said. He added that he has worked on about 47 sim cards of unsuspecting victims.
According to the Police, exhibits recovered from the gang included two laptops, 10 sim cards among other things.