EFCC Arrests Three Suspects For N7m SIM Swap Fraud

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Makurdi zonal office has arrested three suspects for conspiracy and obtaining money by false pretence to the tune of N7 million.

A statement from the anti-graft agency said the trio were on September 9, following information about their activities.

Those arrested are – Adewuyi Adebayo, 31; Osikoya Gboyega, 44 and Akintunde Ogunrinde, 47.

They were arrested at different locations in Lagos State and transferred to Makurdi, the Benue State capital.

The statement said, “The petitioner alleged that on 18th of February, 2018, he noticed his MTN line had stopped working as no calls or messages came to his phone and the phone displayed a message saying, ‘invalid SIM card’.

“He went to the MTN office to lodge a complaint but was told to apply for a welcome back SIM that was not successful as someone else had swapped his SIM card in Abia State.

“He immediately contacted his account officer at FCMB to inform them of the development and to change his alert phone number to another line, only to discover that transactions had occurred on his account without his consent.”

According to the EFCC, the threshold limit for online transfers on the victim’s account had also been increased above N500,000 and the sum of N7,107,540 had been removed from his account.

It said further investigations revealed that the suspects masterminded the alleged fraud and would soon be charged to court.