Tag: Scam

6 tricks financial fraudsters use to steal your money
You could have been the victim of this terrifying crime or had calls from some fraudsters, or most probably know someone who has been.

Usually, they will tell you they are your friend abroad and ask you to guess their names or even tell you they work with Dangote cement that there is this contract on offer they want you to grab.

There are so many phone scams these days that you would think the Nigerian Communications Commission Do-Not-Disturb policy is mere child’s play.

Scam SMS financial fraudsters send to victims

It is like clockwork. You sit down to eat dinner and your phone starts ringing incessantly or some disturbing text messages start bumping in for you to call a certain number to re-activate your Bank Verification Number (BVN).

Of course, they want your money. You might think, “how can anyone be tricked by these people?”

Well, it turns out that they use scientifically proven techniques to convince you or your elderly loved ones, that they are who they claim to be. They will convince you that they are trying to be helpful. They will even tell you they know you from your place of worship.

There are six techniques they use to convince you to give them your money. Do you know these six tricks?

6 tricks phone scammers use

We do not want you to be the next victim of a phone scam. Nigerians lose millions of nairas every year to phone scams.

Here are six ways they convince you to pay up.
1. They will call, tell you they are your friend abroad and ask you to guess their names or tell you “you need to re-activate your BVN”
2. Any name you mention, they will go with it, and they will make you start even talking about the person you mentioned (that they do not know) the more. Then they will mention your names and share information about you to gain your trust
3. They will welcome your skepticism, saying they understand your concerns
4. Scammers will lie about who they are, and where they work, whether they say they are with Zenith, GTB, or Fidelity banks or they will tell you they are Dangote staffs, or some other reputable companies
5. They will take their time to explain who they are and why they are calling
6. They will ramp up their pressure and threats by changing the tone of their voice, especially when the narration is not going as they have planned it
It is really important that you never share personal information, such as your address, with anyone over the phone. Of course, never give your credit card information or bank account numbers to anyone, unless you contact them first.

How to outwit phone scammers
1. Stay cool, be in control of the phone call
2. Do not let them rush you. At least waste the scammer’s airtime — a call offering a 10 million naira contract should last at least 5 or more hours (i.e. if you have the time anyways)
3. But, most importantly, pay attention to your intuition
The most effective tool you have with phone scams is your power to hang up. If someone starts asking you for personal information or for money, immediately hang up.

If you are worried that the person calling could have been from your bank, go to your bank; or from a reputable company, find the genuine website of the company and look for contact information. Then, you call them.

Read: Best way to block spam calls on your Smartphone

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June 5, 2017
$15bn arms scam: Leave Nigeria in 72 hours or…Group warns Transparency International

A human rights group, under the aegis of Save Humanity Advocacy Centre has given the Transparency International 72 hours to leave the country over its recent report that former Nigerian military chiefs stole as much as $15 billion through fraudulent arms procurement deals.

According to a recent report jointly presented by the Executive Director of CISLAC, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani and a Senior Legal Researcher at TI, Eva Marie Anderson, corruption in the defence sector had weakened Nigerian counter-terrorism capacity and strengthened Boko Haram terrorists.

Comrade Ibrahim Abubakar, the Executive Director, SHAC, who faulted the report, said the organization’s excesses have become unbearable and it should leave the country without delay.

According to him, “We have taken our time to look at the claims in the said report and our conclusion is that it contained more of recycled history than groundbreaking research that Nigerians are yearning for to take the ongoing anti-corruption efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari to the next level.

“It is however disappointing that the report is rich in allegations and short on actionable revelations that could help to further plug loopholes in the system.

“The report therefore has all the elements of a contract awarded in pursuit of an agenda which is already well known to many Nigerians going by our experience with Amnesty International and those promoting falsehood in high places.

“It wasted a lot of its focus on cases and incidents that the President Buhari led Federal Government has dealt with or that happened too long ago to have been brought up in the context Transparency International did.

“The defence sectors of other countries regularly deal with issues that are not too different from what the Nigerian Armed Forces have had to contend with and at no time has Transparency International sought to make them the object of international ridicule once they being implementing actions to prevent recurrence.

“It is therefore appalling that the massive reforms that have been introduced in Nigeria’s defence sector was not taken into consideration when the report was written rather they decided to present the past ugly trend under past administration, which is considered as a gross injustice to the current set of actors in the defence architecture of our country who make daily sacrifices to see to our peace and wellbeing as a nation. ‎

“We therefore condemn the Transparency International’s report in its entirety as an attempt to blackmail the Nigerian Armed Forces and the Federal Government into allowing terrorists to freely roam the Nigeria. For Transparency International to constitute itself into a sanction imposing entity that can block arms sales and place travel ban, as far as we are concerned, is a plot to decimate Nigeria’s population to allow dark influences inherit the land and its resources. No right thinking nation will accept such wicked evil and we reject it on behalf of all Nigerians.

“In the interest of the preservation of Nigeria, we are giving Transparency International 72 hours to leave Nigeria.

“We, by the same measure call on the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Ministry of Interior to act fast in expelling the saboteurs at the organization from Nigeria within the stated time failing which we shall bear no responsibility for the mass civil disobedience from Nigerians who are being mobilized across the country.

“Transparency International shall receive a stiffer treatment than its co-saboteur, Amnesty International received at the hands of Nigerian protesters in the past. This ultimatum is to Transparency International and all its local collaborators in the agenda to destroy the Nigeria’s image both at home and abroad for their selfish interest.

“As the common street lingo will put it, “our mumu don do”, we have had enough of foreign occupiers that come here to lord it over Nigerians as if they represent God. The wickedness of Transparency International, while meant to particularly to dent the image of the current administration and its efforts in the war against insurgency, the plot will make life difficult for Nigerians given the humanitarian crisis that terrorism has caused in our country.”

May 23, 2017
FBI declares Nigerian, Kelechi James wanted over $5 million cyber fraud

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations, FBI, has declared a Nigerian, Kelechi Declan James, wanted.

The FBI made this known on its Twitter handle and its website on Friday.

According to the FBI, the accused has federal criminal charges against him from an investigation by FBI New York’s Cyber Crime Task Force.

As alleged in a complaint sworn out of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Mr. James, along with four other co-conspirators, ran an e-mail compromise scheme that resulted in losses of more than $5 million for their victims.

As part of scheme, the suspect and his co-conspirators allegedly defrauded victims across the U.S. by tricking them into wiring money to bank accounts the victims believed were owned by friends or business associates.

They did this in two ways: by overtaking an e-mail account of an individual trusted by the victim and then requesting money be wired to a bank account; or by developing a relationship of trust with victim like an Internet romance and then asking the victim to wire money, the American agency said.

As soon as the money was wired, it would be moved from one account to another, and the funds would be withdrawn. Mr. James’s role in this scheme was to withdraw the money from bank accounts, the FBI said.

“James is known to frequent the Brooklyn neighborhoods of East New York (Crescent Street and Loring Avenue; Vermont Street between Blake Avenue and Dumont Avenue), Brownsville, Bedford-Stuyvesant (MacDougal and Hull Streets), Crown Heights (Park Place and Utica Avenue), Flatbush (E 29th and Avenue D), and East Flatbush (East 51st and Winthrop Street),” the agency said.

The FBI offered a $1,000 reward for information that leads to his arrest.

April 16, 2017
EFCC arrests, detains ex-Niger Gov, Babangida Aliyu, over alleged N5bn scam

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Tuesday arrested the immediate past Governor of Niger State, Babangida Aliyu, over an alleged scam involving N5bn.

TheNewsGuru.com gathers that Aliyu, who served as governor on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, between 2007 and 2015, was arrested by the anti-graft agency after honouring an invitation by the commission.

Aliyu was, however, detained after interrogation, pending further investigation.

An anonymous source at the commission confirmed to newsmen: “We invited former Governor Aliyu to our office on Tuesday and he has been in our custody since then.

“He was invited following an investigation into a scam involving about N5bn.”

The EFCC spokesman, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, when contacted by The Punch on telephone confirmed that Aliyu was in the custody of the commission but failed to give more details.

“The former governor was invited by the commission and he is still in our custody,” Uwujaren said.

TheNewsGuru.com recalls that the incumbent Governor of the state, Alhaji Abubakar Bello, as well as the members of the Niger State House of Assembly, had called for a probe of Aliyu’s administration which they described as fraudulent.

Bello said there were several questionable transactions the former administration must account for.

The discrepancies, according to him, were discovered by the financial management committee set up by his administration, lamenting that one of such discrepancies was discovered in the state and local government joint account where a massive fraud was allegedly perpetrated.

According to Bello: “We instituted a financial management committee to look at all major financial transactions of the state and local governments from May 2007 to May 2015. The committee has made substantial progress and the findings are quite revealing.

“A review of the operations of some of the major bank accounts of the state and the Local Government Joint Accounts Allocation Committee over the last eight years revealed some despicable patterns such as huge cash withdrawals by government officials, private individuals and PDP officials and members.

“For example, an examination of only two bank accounts of Government House shows more than N70bn cash withdrawals by a few officials who must explain the purpose for which the withdrawals were made. The operation of the joint account was characterised by diversions and a misapplication of huge funds especially those paid for Ward Development Projects and 10km roads projects”.

April 6, 2017
Cybercrimes: Nigeria loses N127b yearly

A cyber security group, Cyber Security Experts Association of Nigeria (CSEAN) has estimated that Nigeria loses about N127 billion to cybercrimes yearly.

It said several cases of cyber crime activities in the country, many of which have resulted in financial losses by individuals and organisations, had been widely unreported.

The CSEAN said the country might face even greater odds in cybersecurity threats this year.

It, however, identified five cyber crimes that will dominate Nigeria this year based on the current trends as CEO e-mail scam, ransomware, online-assisted kidnapping, cyber bullying and online impersonation.

CSEAN President, Remi Afon, who said that the year 2017 would witness more ransomware than ever seen before in Nigeria, stated that with the rise of ransomware-as-a-service, cyber criminals could now purchase a user-friendly kit they could deploy with little or no cyber know-how from the dark web.

He described ransomware as a type of malware that infects a machine when a user clicks on a seemingly legitimate link and unknowingly downloads a malicious file. The virus will then encrypt the user’s files, share drives and servers, leaving them inaccessible unless the victim pays for the decryption key usually in crypto currency.

He said: “That kidnapping is on the rise in Nigeria is no news. What many people don’t know is that kidnappers are being assisted by their victims’ social media online activities and geolocation data on their smartphones. Geolocation data is information that can be used to identify an electronic device’s physical location.”

According to him, using smartphones’ built-in Global Positioning System (GPS) functionality allows location-based services (or geo-location) to locate and publish information about smartphone owners’ whereabouts.

He also identified online impersonation, which he categorised into two, as another top cyber crime to watch out for in 2017. He said while the first category impersonates politicians and religious leaders on social media by creating fake profiles with the aim of scamming their victims, the second usually creates fake profiles with attractive fake pictures so they can engage in what is called ‘romance scam’.

Afon stressed that cyber criminals were mainly interested in targeting foreigners, claiming they were in love with them and establishing a love relation to be able to swindle them.

January 3, 2017