Student Fraudsters

By Astro Jewoola

Three students of Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State, have been arrested by detectives of the Nigeria Police Special Fraud Unit (SFU), Milverton Road, Ikoyi.

They allegedly withdrew about N34 million fraudulently from people’s bank account through the automatic teller machine (ATM).

The fraud was detected at the Benin branch of Access Bank Nigeria Plc.

The principal suspect is 20-year old Timothy Ehimea, a part-time student of Science Laboratory Technology at the Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State.

Other suspects are, Ighodaro Osahon, 22, Electrical Engineering and George Osagale, 24, a Geography and Physical Planning final year student.

They are all childhood friends who hail from Ishan in Edo State.

According to a source at SFU, “We received a strongly worded petition addressed to the Commissioner of Police in charge of SFU, Mr. Olayinka Balogun from Access Bank Nigeria Plc., regarding about N34 million Automated Machine Fraud (ATM) being perpetrated by an Ambrose Alli University student.

“The copy of the petition stated further that ‘one Ehimea on several occasions manipulated the ATM machine of the bank’s branch at 43B, Evifa Bufu Road, Benin City and his access card visa with number 4751-7500-0003 to withdraw the sums between April and June this year.’ Upon receiving a copy of the petition, we swung into investigation.”

Before Ehimea was arrested last week, investigation showed that he was living like a king on the campus, cruising around in his newly acquired cartoon colour Toyota Nissan Pathfinder sport utility veicle (SUV) with registration number AW 141 USR.

Ehimea was arrested inside the banking hall where, according to the source, he was officially invited for some other multi-million naira related investment with the bank and a red carpet was rolled out for the unsuspecting bank visitor.

Until his arrest last week, officials of the bank inquired about his source of income and his business that netted millions of naira in such a short time.

Ehimea lied to them that he was a computer analyst and computer engineer working for a Googlewith the United States of America and each time they paid him with thousand of American dollars.

SFU investigations revealed further that the ATM fraud whizkid operated about five different bank accounts through which he siphoned the ill-gotten money with fake credit cards.

The cards’ numbers are: 023002300002328, 030031000360, 0300350060038; 0301510025641 and 0101620002540.

In his confessional statement, Ehimea admitted all charges levelled against him.

According to him, “what I illegally withdrew was not N34 million but N20 million.

“One morning that I needed to cash money from the bank with my Access Bank visa card, I spotted the faulty machine. I discovered that each time I withdrew money my account would not be debited, so I just kept on withdrawing.

“But each time I withdrew some money, my account was credited again. I was always scared, but I would collect it, rush back to the banking hall and re-credit my account. I did this several times that I could not even remember.”

When Ehimea sensed the looming danger, he cleverly transferred about N12 million to his friend Ighodaro Osahon’s account at Guarantee Trust Bank, Benin for safe keep, and hired the services of one solicitor identified as Mr. Edokpaigbe Edobor to fight his cause. He was paid N50,000 for his legal services.

PM.News further gathered that Ehimea cleverly transferred some amount to different banks. These are, Access Bank N3 million, Oceanic Bank N17 million and United Bank of Africa N5 million.

When police questioned both George Osagale and Ighodaro Osahon about the level of their involvement, they denied any knowledge of the ATM scam and Ighodaro stated that “I don’t know that Ehimea had transferred the N12 million into my GTB account.”

Items recovered from Ehimea include five credit cards and six brands of handsets.

Commenting on the ATM fraud, the Commissioner of Police, Special Fraud Unit Mr. Olayinka Balogun advised all parents to engaged their children meaningfully.

“Children of such ages are very clever and brilliant. If their brains were not positively engaged it could be used negatively. Idle hands are the devil’s workshops,” said Balogun.

Meanwhile, the matter has been transferred to the office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, for further investigation.

Woman Gets Two Years for Aiding Nigerian Internet Check Scam

 A Washington woman was sentenced on Wednesday to two years in prison and five years of supervised release for her role in an Internet counterfeit check scheme.

 

Edna Fiedler pleaded guilty in March to attempting to defraud U.S. citizens in a scheme known as a Nigerian check scam.

 

Fiedler helped her accomplices in Nigeria send fake checks to people who had agreed to cash the checks on behalf of the sender, keeping some of the proceeds and sending the rest back.

 

The Nigerians found people willing to cash the fake checks via e-mail. They would send their names as well as fake documents that looked like Wal-Mart money orders, Bank of America checks, U.S. Postal Service checks and American Express traveler’s checks to Fiedler. They told her how to fill out the checks and where to send them.

 

The recipients most likely thought they were helping out someone who needed a person in the U.S. to cash a check for them, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. They were able to get the money by cashing the checks, and sent most of it to either Fiedler or her Nigerian accomplices. However, once the checks were discovered to be fake, the people who cashed them were responsible for the full amount.

 

All told, Fiedler sent out US$609,000 worth of phony checks and money orders. When U.S. Secret Service agents investigating the case searched Fiedler’s house, they found additional fake checks worth more than $1.1 million that she was preparing to send out.

 

At a recent conference in Seattle, a representative from the U.S. Postal Service and Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna described ways they’re working to shut down these kinds of scams, particularly because they often involve people who don’t realize that they’re taking part in illegal activities.

 

The U.S. Postal Service recently sent 15 postal investigators to Lagos, Nigeria, and during a three-month period there, they helped intercept counterfeit checks, lottery tickets and eBay overpayment schemes with a face value of $2.1 billion, Chris Siouris, a cyber investigator at the U.S. Postal Inspector, said at the recent conference. Siouris, McKenna and others are pushing for ways to better educate Internet users so that people don’t unwittingly help out in these kinds of e-mail scams.

Expert to tackle cyber crime out of Africa

Greg Stolz

May 21, 2008 12:00am

GULLIBLE Queenslanders are losing as much as $500,000 a month to cyber-crooks from Nigeria, police say.

And a Nigerian computer crime expert has arrived in Queensland to help tackle the problem.

Nigerian Economic Financial Crimes Commission official Abdulkarim Chukkol is on the Gold Coast for an IT security conference staged by the University of Queensland.

He told the Australian Computer Emergency Response Team conference that Nigeria was ashamed of its reputation as the world’s scam capital and the NEFCC had been established to combat the problem.

Mr Chukkol said that after perpetrating scams including fake lotteries and bogus funds transfers, Nigerian fraudsters were turning their attentions to romance, charity and even pet sale scams.

Despite widespread publicity about Nigerian scams, Queensland police fraud squad chief Brian Hay said Queenslanders were still making an average of 600 financial transactions a month, worth a total of about $500,000, with the west African nation.

Many of the victims were lonely hearts who had lost tens of thousands of dollars in online dating scams, Superintendent Hay said.

“I think the Nigerians would be the most successful (at online scams) _ they’ve found a niche and they exploit it,” he said.

“Even Nigerians themselves have fallen victim to these types of frauds. It’s a global problem and people need to be careful and they need to protect themselves.”

Mr Chukkol said a criminal minority was tarnishing Nigeria’s image but the NEFCC was fighting back.

He said more than 280 cyber-criminals had been convicted and tens of millions of dollars recovered.

Mr Chukkol will also address industry groups to pass on tips on how to avoid falling victim to cyber-crime.