24-year-old Ghanaian, Emmanuel Poku has been sentenced to 2 years and 9 months in prison by the UK court for defrauding the UK telecommunications industry and banking industry.
According to within Nigeria, the suspect who had 500,000 phone numbers and 35,000 bank card numbers linked to more than £2 million of reported losses on laptops and mobiles at the time of his arrest, funded luxury holidays with proceeds of his crime.
Emmanuel tricked customers into giving their financial and personal details by sending out thousands of text messages imitating banks and mobile phone companies. He also used ‘sim swaps’ to complete fraudulent transfers and purchases on customers’ account.
Large amounts of money, summing up to £12,000. and even more was found in Emmanuel’s house. Emmanuel was arrested on April 1 after being busted through collaborative intelligence work between the DCPCU and mobile phone companies.
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on April 1 after being busted through collaborative intelligence work between the DCPCU and mobile phone companies.
The sergeant said:
“Emanuel Poku was committing fraud on an industrial scale, funding luxury holidays around the world by stealing money from unsuspecting victims. His devices had been used to send ‘smishing’ text messages to thousands of customers, trying to trick them into giving away their details before using Sim swaps to complete fraudulent transactions.”
He added: “We would urge people to always be on the lookout for this kind of scam. Never automatically click on a link in an unexpected text message or email, as it could be a fraudster trying to harvest your personal and bank details.”
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