At least 62 suspected cyber-criminal elements have been arrested in Nigeria and Cameroon in a joint operation between the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Italian Police.
According to a Thursday statement from EFCC, the suspects arrested were involved in internet-based fraudulent activities which included acts of fraud committed against Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) across the globe.
The statement said that 750 officers from the Italian, Spanish, Polish, English, Belgian, Georgian, Turkish and Cameroonian police participated in massive raids in June 2015 that led to the arrest of the suspects.
Also, 82 house were searched, and 40 thousand euros, 30 smart phones, 10 tablets and 15 personal computers seized from the suspects.
The suspects’ crime was stated as laundering activities involving large amounts of money obtained by means of state-of-the-art phishing techniques uses a particular attack called in hacking jargon, “man-in-the-middle’’.
“The operation is carried out by illegally, accessing e-mail boxes of Italian and foreign companies through hacking and social engineering techniques that enabled the criminals to meddle in trade relations,” the statement said.
Furthermore, the statement revealed that the EFCC were able to follow up the Italian investigation working on information gathered by the Postal and Communications Police in Italy and were able to track down three fugitives in their homes located in various places within the city of Lagos and apprehend them.
The Lagos arrests turned up exhibits such as computers, mobile phones, SIM cards, several storage media as well as bank documents linked to suspected criminal activities, the statement confirmed.
Similarly, the statement affirmed that EFCC has also started an independent investigation that allowed them to confirm the connection with the group dismantled through the Italian investigation, and to identify new criminal links with South Africa, Ghana, Gambia, China, UAE, Kenya and Spain.
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