28th January, 2013
BY CYRIACUS IZUEKWE
Cases of fraud through fake bank alerts are on the increase. Police advise the public to be wary of transactions done through such a process
To Moses Adebayo, an electrical cables and wire trader at the Alaba International Market, Ojo, Lagos, it was a rude awakening. Sometime last year, Adebayo had received a call from someone who identified himself as Wuse Sunday and claimed to be a businessman based in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory. After discussing types and prices of cables and wires with Adebayo, he requested a supply of the items worth N9.335 million. He also requested Adebayo’s account number so he could pay in the money and later come to Lagos to take delivery of the goods.
An unsuspicious Adebayo readily gave the caller his account number1004373310 at the United Bank for Africa and patiently waited for an alert that would inform him the money had been deposited. As he narrated, the alert eventually came in by 6.00 p.m. on 17 August 2012. On the same day, he also received an alert of a lodgement of N250,000 by one of his customers, the Living Faith Church. “The alert came with the bank’s logo and stated my previous amount, plus the additional payment by Sunday and my total balance of my account,” Adebayo recalled. Assured by the alert, it was an elated Adebayo who quickly arranged availability of the items which Sunday and his accomplices came to his office to cart away.
The cables merchant said he could not go to the bank the next day to do any transaction because it was the Ramadan celebration public holiday. Three days after the public holiday, he went to the bank to request for the statement of his account. What the bank officials gave him was a bombshell: no N9.33mn was paid into his account. His insistence that he received an alert to confirm Sunday actually paid in the sum led to further investigation. The bank manager later told him what had happened: the alert was hacked. What the bank manager could not explain was how the hacker got to know the credit balance in Adebayo’s account. A furious Adebayo concluded an insider at the bank must have committed the fraud or disclosed confidential information of his detailed account to the criminal. He promptly went to a Lagos High Court alleging a breach of trust against UBA and seeking a refund of his money.
Police investigation has, however, uncovered the alleged perpetrator of the crime. Recently, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr Umar Manko paraded 32-year old Pius Agumba, alias Wuse Sunday, who hails from Nnewi, Anambra State, but lives at Gowon Estate in Egbeda area of Lagos State as the alleged fraudster who conned Adebayo.
In another instance, a Lagos-based company, West Gate Nigeria Limited, had a similar experience. The company lost 100 laptops worth N8.5 million to a suspected fraudster at the Computer Village in Ikeja, Lagos State, Southwest Nigeria. The suspect, Anthony Uche, who claimed to be a conductor, was arrested by detectives from the SCID, Panti, Lagos State and charged to the Ebute Meta magistrate’s court on a two-count charge of stealing and obtaining money under false pretences..
Like Agumba, Uche was alleged to have sent a fake credit alert to the company’s bank account indicating he had paid for the goods. TheNEWS gathered West Gate eventually supplied Uche the goods only to discover no such money was paid in. The matter was reported to the police who commenced investigation that led to the arrest of Uche.
As this magazine gathered, fraud cases through fake bank alerts have been on the increase. But what has been the poser is how the fraudsters know the exact account balance of their victims. Could it be a conspiracy between bank officials and the suspects? Adebayo maintains bank officials are involved in the new wave of fake alert scam. “How do fraudsters know the account balance of a victim without bank officials disclosing such imformation to them?” he wondered. His lawyer, Barrister Oyeleke agreed.
Another businessman, Ifedi Okoye disclosed he had a similar experience last year when a customer who wanted to buy goods worth millions of naira sent him a fake alert on his mobile phone. But Okoye did not release the goods until he went to the bank the following day to confirm lodgement. It was a good thing he did, because he discovered no money for such a transaction was paid into his account, yet the alert details that had come into his phone a day earlier were accurate and looked genuine in every way. Okoye said he found out later that the fraudster got the details of his bank account through a bank official. He explained that to get classified information on any account, a fraudster only needs to get the account number of the target and by bribing some officials, he will get the details.
Manko said that the police are working hard to arrest the development by collaborating with banks’ management to fish out insider conspirators and prosecuting them. They are meanwhile advising the public to be wary of transactions they do through the bank alert process.
.This article originally appeared in TheNEWS magazine of 04 February 2013