Lekki, a fast-developing upper middle class district of Lagos Metropolis, is emerging as the new hub of internet-related fraud, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, said on Friday.
The anti-graft agency revealed that data from investigation activities of its Lagos Command for the second quarter of 2021 indicated that Lekki has become the preferred location for cyber fraud syndicates.
Specifically, it said between April and June, 2021, the Advance Fee Fraud and Cyber Crime Sections of the Command recorded a total of 402 internet-related fraud arrests.
While the Advance Fee Fraud Section was responsible for 243 arrests, the Cyber Crime Section executed 18 sting operations which resulted in 159 arrests, from which 13 convictions had been recorded.
EFCC spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, said on Friday that of the 159 suspects arrested by the Cyber Crime Section, 70 were from Lekki, comprising communities such as Ajah, Badore, Victoria Garden City, Sangotedo and Oniru.
He added that Ajah accounted for 24 suspects, while Oniru and Sangotedo had 14 and 13 suspects respectively. Badore had 8 suspects. Neighbouring Ikoyi and Eko Atlantic had 2 and one suspect each. Ikorodu and Alagbado on the Lagos Mainland make up the remainder.
The suspects are mostly millennial, with 82 of them aged between 25-34 years, indicating that most of the suspects arrested are either in school, recent graduates or university drop outs.
Uwujaren noted that an analysis of the data from the Cyber Crime Section further shows that the dominant form of internet crime is Dating Scam/Online Dating Scam/Romance Scam.
Sixty Four percent of individuals arrested are involved in romance scam, followed closely by “Middle Man Scam” and “Picking” which account for 8% and 7% respectively of those arrested.
He said the 64% of suspects are involved in the dating scam benefitted to the tune of N8, 310,000; $349,290 USD; £ 900; €10 and Cryptocurrency 0.17513.
Other typologies of fraud identified include forgery, possession of fraudulent documents, spamming, credit card fraud, impersonation, rental scam, loan fraud, Business Email Compromise, Hacking, stealing, cheque scam, phishing, and money laundering.
The data also revealed gift cards, at 39 percent, as the prevalent method employed by the suspects to access their illicit funds. It is followed by bank transfers at 27 percent and Cryptocurrency at 21 percent.
The EFCC said a total of $12,512.49USD was recovered from the e-wallet accounts of four suspects within the period.
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