EFCC Nabs ‘792 Crypto Fraudsters’ In Lagos

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has announced the arrest of 792 individuals involved in cryptocurrency investment fraud, romance scams, and other related offenses.

Wilson Uwujaren, the EFCC’s Director of Public Affairs, disclosed this information during a press briefing in Lagos on Monday.

He explained that the arrests were made during a surprise operation conducted last Tuesday at the suspects’ hideout, located at the Big Leaf Building on No. 7 Oyin Jolayemi Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.

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Herevealed that 148 Chinese, 40 Filipinos, one Pakistani and one Indonesian were among the foreigners arrested.

“Investigation established that the foreign nationals use the facility at 7 Oyin Jolayemi Street, which could be mistaken for a corporate headquarters of a financial establishment, to train their Nigerian accomplices on how to initiate romance and investment scams and also use the identities of Nigerians to perpetrate their criminal activities.

“All the floors are equipped with high-end desktop computers. On the 5th floor alone, investigators recovered 500 SIM cards of local telcos that were bought for criminal purposes.

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“Their Nigerian accomplices were recruited by the foreign kingpins to prospect for victims online through phishing, targeting mostly Americans, Canadians, Mexicans, and several others from European countries.

“They usually arm them with desktop computers and mobile devices and create fake profiles for them,” he said