LAGOS, Nigeria (The Informant247) – Suspected fraudsters have transferred N523,337,100 from a customer’s account domiciled in an Old-Nigerian bank to 18 different accounts in the same bank, police said on Thursday.
The suspects subsequently transferred the money from the 18 accounts into 225 other accounts domiciled in 22 other banks and financial institutions, spokesperson for the Police Special Fraud Unit in Nigeria’s commercial capital city Lagos, Eyitayo Johnson, said in a statement.
He said the coordinated cyber-attack was carried out between April 23, 2022, and April 25, 2022, adding that two suspects had been arrested in connection with the crime.
“The legal section of the Police Special Fraud Unit in Ikoyi-Lagos, headed by CSP E. A. Jackson, has successfully obtained an order of the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, for the preservation/forfeiture/attachment of a net sum of N523,337,100 fraudulently transferred by Internet fraudsters who hacked a customer’s account domiciled in one of the old-generation banks and posted the funds into 18 different accounts in the same bank before transmitting same to 225 other accounts in 22 banks/financial institutions.
“In the course of the investigation, the sum of N160,287,071.47 was recovered from different banks; with two suspects arrested, while operatives are following other leads in order to apprehend the remaining members of the syndicate. The suspects will be charged to court as soon as investigations are concluded,” Johnson said in a statement.