The scam was busted by EFCC last week on 10th December after the agency was tipped off by an outside source. Following this around 792 persons including 148 Chinese, 40 Filipinos, 2 Kharzartans, 1 Pakistani, and 1 Indonesian were detained by the authorities.
“Nigeria’s anti-graft agency stated that the syndicate’s headquarters was used to train Nigerian accomplices on how to initiate romance and investment scams, even stealing the identities of those accomplices, to commit more fraud and criminal activities. As typical with most romance scams, the bad actors would lure victims with offers of romantic interest, and once hooked, the criminals would press their victims to hand over cash for fake cryptocurrency investments or other non-existent projects,” EFCC Executive Chairman Ola Olukoyedea said while explaining the matter.
Meanwhile, EFCC spokesperson Wilson Uwujaren said that the luxury office housed a call center mostly targeting victims from America and Europe.
EFCC Bursts Syndicate of 792 Cryptocurrency Investment, Romance Fraud Suspects in Lagos
— EFCC Nigeria (@officialEFCC) December 16, 2024
… Arrests 193 Chinese, Arabs, Filipinos, Others
The Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ola Olukoyede, has disclosed that the Commission, in a… pic.twitter.com/623RP95Dxu
Reports suggest that the arrested suspects used social media and other messaging platforms like WhatsApp, Instagram, and Telegram to target the victims. These were specially trained to impersonate foreign females in romance scams.
“Young Nigerians, first tested for computer and typing skills, would be given desktop computers and mobile devices and then taken through a two-week induction on how to impersonate foreign females in romance scam chats,” an EFCC spokesman revealed. He added that the entire office that was raided on 10th December was well equipped with high-end technological machines and computers. Also, the authorities recovered around 500 SIM cards from the 5th floor.
These suspects would notably use fake profiles to target the victims. Sometimes they would be assigned WhatsApp accounts linked to foreign telephone numbers, especially from Germany and Italy. “The victims, once romantically engaged with the perpetrators, would then be steered towards making phantom business and investment transactions through a fake cryptocurrency platform called Yooto-dot-com. For those that showed interest, activation fees for an account on the platform start from $35 USD,” the EFCC spokesperson said.
The suspects then would defraud the victims duping them for huge amounts. The arrested individuals were further rewarded by cash. It is believed that even these Nigerians had no idea as to what primary transactions had been taking place.
“There is a big misconception that Nigerians are behind the tons of fraud emanating from the country. Foreigners are taking advantage of our nation’s unfortunate reputation as a haven of frauds to establish a foothold here to disguise their atrocious criminal enterprises. But, as this operation has shown, there will be no hiding places for criminals in Nigeria,” EFCC chairman Olukoyede said.
The chairman meanwhile stated that the agency would work with the foregoing partners to determine the extent of the scam and know more about the perpetrators. The authorities are also probing to uncover if any syndicate was collaborating with any other organized international fraud cells.
