Police arrests couple for alleged N52m fraud in Lagos

Operatives of Police Special Fraud Unit (PSFU) ,Ikoyi, Lagos, have arrested one George Ewere and his wife for alleged N52 million fraud.

The spokesman for the PSFU, SP Eyitayo Johnson, said in a statement on Monday that the suspects were arrested for conspiracy, cyber fraud/business email compromise, criminal conversion and stealing.

He said the arrest of the couple followed a petition addressed to the Commissioner of Police, PSFU by a law firm, Athan Ogbulie & Co., alleging diversion of the sum through Inter-Bank wire transfer of the funds.

The statement read: “The suspect and members of the syndicate targeted and compromised the email accounts of businesses that frequently make wire payments and waited for the right time to substitute the original account that should receive the money.

“According to the suspect, the hack which happened in February 2022 was achieved by spoofing on the victim company’s email account/website.

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“Which makes it possible to carry out slight variations to the legitimate email address of the company in order to fool the victim into thinking the fake accounts are authentic.

“Spear phishing emails were also sent to the company to gain access to company accounts, calendars and data.”

Johnson said some of the funds which were diverted into five different banks had been recovered.

“Some of money which was diverted into accounts belonging to the suspect, his wife and daughter has been recovered as exhibit.

“While effort is on to locate the rest of the funds and other members of the syndicate.

“Part of the money was also discovered to have been withdrawn via Point-of-Sale (POS)and Automated Teller Machine (ATM) at different locations.

“The suspects will be charged to court as soon as the investigation is concluded,” the statement added.

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