- Stephen Godonu- The Nigeria Police Force has taken into custody three persons for their alleged involvement in cyber fraud.
The police also said it uncovered over 50,000 email accounts and websites, including passwords of various individuals and corporate entities across the world.
The suspects, Chidiebere Onwuka, a.k.a Ceeceeboss TMT, 32; Ikechukwu Ohanedozie, a.k.a Dozzy, 34; and Ifeanyi Onuegwu, a.k.a SSGToolz, 35, were arrested by the Nigeria Police Cybercrime Unit, Interpol National Central Bureau, Abuja.
According to a statement on Thursday by the Force spokesman, DCP Frank Mba, they suspects were apprehended following an intelligence report from the Interpol Cybercrime Directorate in Singapore on global attacks by Nigerian cyber gangs who engaged in mass email phishing campaigns and distribution of malware aimed at stealing authentication data from browsers and email headers.
Mba said findings revealed that Onuegwu specialised in creating, designing, selling of phishing links and hosting malwares on the website used by the gang for phishing and hacking purposes.
The suspect was also accused of collecting charges running into several millions of naira from other fraudsters he mentored and improved their phishing capabilities.
Mba said Onwuka, a graduate of Business Administration from the Imo State University, specialised in business email compromise and hacking.
“A comprehensive forensic analysis reveals that he had in his laptop over 50,000 email accounts and websites, including passwords of various individuals and corporate entities across the world.
“He recruited the third suspect, Ohanedozie, a medical student of the Imo State University, into the gang. Ohanedozie sorts and profiles e-mail accounts to determine the financial strengths of prospective victims and passes on information obtained there to Onwuka.
“All the suspects will be charged to court on conclusion of the investigation and prosecuted in line with the Cybercrime Prevention/Prohibition Act, 2015,” he added.
Meanwhile, the force has unveiled a cybercrime reporting portal, https://incb.police.gov.ng/ as part of efforts at ensuring ease of crime reportage by members of the public to enable prompt investigation, arrest and prosecution of perpetrators of cybercrime and other related offences.
The police said with this, victims or complainants could report cases of cybercrime online at any time and from any part of the world.