Operatives of Police Special Fraud Unit (PSFU) has arrested a 62-years old man, George Ewere and his wife for alleged cyber fraud involving N52 million in Lagos.
The suspects and members of the syndicate were said to have targeted and compromised the email accounts of businesses that frequently make wire payments and waited for the right time to substitute the original account that should receive the money.
Confirming the arrest through a Statement on Monday, the Spokesperson of PSFU, Eyitayo Johnson, said that the suspects were arrested for conspiracy, cyber fraud/Business Email Compromise, Criminal Conversion and Stealing, adding that the arrests followed a petition addressed to the Commissioner of Police, PSFU by the Law Firm of Athan Ogbulie & Co. alleging diversion of the aforesaid sum during the Inter-Bank wire transfer of the funds.
“According to the suspect, the hack which happened in February 2022 was achieved by spoofing on the victim company’s email account/website. Which makes it possible to carry out slight variations to the legitimate email address of the company in order to fool the victim into thinking the fake accounts are authentic. Spear phishing emails were also sent to the company to gain access to company accounts, calendars and data.” he said.
Johnson disclosed that some of the money which was diverted into five different banks had been recovered from the suspects, adding that the police was on the trail of other members of the syndicate to bring them to book.
“Some of the money which was diverted into accounts belonging to the suspect, his wife and daughter has been recovered as an exhibit. While effort is on to locate the rest of the funds and other members of the syndicate.
“Part of the money was also discovered to have been withdrawn via Point-of-Sale (POS)and Automated Teller Machine (ATM) at different locations. The suspects will be charged to court as soon as the investigation is concluded.” he added.
Johnson further said that the Commissioner of Police, PSFU, Anyasinti Josephine, has advised individuals and businesses to take note of some precautions in order to mitigate against Business Email Compromise (BEC) such as being careful of information shared online, carefully examine the email address, URL, and being careful what they download.