The Nigerian man was arrested in Port Harcourt in southern Nigeria with the help of Nigeria’s anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the global police organization Interpol said in a statement Monday. Firms doing business with the crooks unwittingly hosted compromised accounts, being targeted by scams that in one case conned a particularly unfortunate mark into handing over $15.4m.
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The 40-year-old man, known only as “Mike” is alleged to have been the ringleader of a network of 40 people behind global scams worth over $60 million.
The alleged mastermind headed a network of at least 40 individuals across Nigeria, Malaysia and South Africa who provided the malware and helped carry out the scams, Interpol said.
Be proactive – Use the “Flag as Inappropriate” link at the upper right corner of each comment to let us know of abusive posts. In the former, the network hacked businesses’ emails and sent fake messages to clients with instructions for sending money to a bank account under the network’s control. In CEO fraud, the email account of a high-level executive is hijacked in order to send a bogus request to a firm’s accounts department instructing a wire transfer to a bank account controlled by criminals.
The accused, according to a statement by Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, was arrested in Nigeria’s oil-rich Port Harcourt town following months of officials trailing the activities of his gang which is spread across many countries, including the U.S., China, Canada, South Africa and Malaysia.
The suspect and an accomplice, who was also arrested in the city, face charges including hacking, conspiracy and obtaining money under false pretences.
In recent years the scam campaigns have become more malicious, involving hijacking someone’s PC or luring naive internet users into believing they have found love online with the aim of emptying their bank accounts.
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They are now out on bail as investigations continue, the statement said.
