The growing sophistication of cybercrime in Nigeria has come under renewed scrutiny as the Nigeria Police Force uncovered major fraud networks involving billions of naira, cryptocurrency scams, identity theft and the spread of false information online.
The Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC) announced the arrest of 20 suspects in six major operations across the country, including the dismantling of a syndicate accused of defrauding MTN Nigeria of about ₦7.7 billion.
Police investigations revealed that the syndicate allegedly manipulated MTN’s billing and payment systems using stolen staff login credentials to fraudulently generate airtime and data bundles distributed to more than 2,000 prepaid lines.
Six suspects were arrested during operations in Kano, Katsina and Abuja, while more than 400 laptops, 1,000 mobile phones, three POS machines, a Toyota RAV4 and thousands of dollars in cash were recovered.
The police said MTN successfully reversed 2,931.79 terabytes of stolen data valued at approximately ₦3.8 billion.
In another operation in Asaba, Delta State, six suspects were arrested over an alleged international cyber-enabled fraud scheme targeting foreign victims through the impersonation of internationally recognised personalities.
The NPF-NCCC also arrested four suspects under Operation Seraphim, a joint investigation with the City of London Police into a cybercrime network operating across 434 Telegram chat rooms and allegedly selling stolen personal and financial information belonging mainly to United Kingdom citizens.
Three other suspects, including two Chinese nationals, were arrested over an alleged fraudulent investment platform that reportedly obtained about ₦29.8 million from victims before converting the funds to cryptocurrency.
The police also arrested two social media users in separate cases involving the alleged dissemination of manipulated and false information, including a doctored video attributed to President Bola Tinubu and a viral claim that nearly 1,000 Boko Haram members had been deployed to Abuja.
The NPF-NCCC said investigations into the cases are continuing, while efforts are underway to apprehend other suspects still at large and prosecute those implicated.
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