A Nigerian behind an online fraud network which engineered scams worth more than $60 million (54 million euros) has been arrested in southern oil city of Port Harcourt, Interpol said on Monday.
“The 40-year-old Nigerian national, known as ‘Mike’, is believed to be behind scams totallng more than $60 million involving hundreds of victims worldwide,” the international police organization said in a statement.
“In one case, a target was conned into paying out $15.4 million,” Interpol said, indicating that the arrest was carried out with the support of Nigeria’s anti-graft agency the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
“The network compromised email accounts of small to medium businesses around the world including in Australia, Canada, India, Malaysia, Romania, South Africa, Thailand and the United States,” it said.
The suspect ran a network of at least 40 people working from Nigeria, Malaysia and South Africa which used malware and carried out the fraud, and he also had money laundering contacts in China, Europe and the US who provided bank account details for the illicit cash flow.
“Following his arrest in Port Harcourt in southern Nigeria, a forensic examination of devices seized by the EFCC showed he had been involved in a range of criminal activities including business e-mail compromise and romance scams,” it said.
The suspect and a fellow fraudster, 38, who was also arrested in the city, face charges including hacking, conspiracy and obtaining money under false pretenses.
Related: Nigerian Cybercriminals Target Firms Worldwide in BEC Campaign
Related: Losses From Business Email Compromise Scams Top $3.1 Billion
Related: Stolen LinkedIn Data Used in Personalized Email Attacks
Related: FACC Fires CEO After $56-million Cyber Scam
More from AFP
- France Punishes Clearview AI For Failing To Pay Fine
- Twitter Celebrity Hacker Pleads Guilty in US
- Pro-Russian Hackers Claim Downing of French Senate Website
- Microsoft Expands AI Access to Public
- Hackers Promise AI, Install Malware Instead
- Australian Finance Company Refuses Hackers’ Ransom Demand
- Tesla Sued Over Workers’ Alleged Access to Car Video Imagery
- Secret US Documents on Ukraine War Plan Spill Onto Internet: Report
Latest News
- Industrial Giant ABB Confirms Ransomware Attack, Data Theft
- Organizations Worldwide Targeted in Rapidly Evolving Buhti Ransomware Operation
- Google Cloud Users Can Now Automate TLS Certificate Lifecycle
- Zyxel Firewalls Hacked by Mirai Botnet
- Watch Now: Threat Detection and Incident Response Virtual Summit
- NCC Group Releases Open Source Tools for Developers, Pentesters
- Memcyco Raises $10 Million in Seed Funding to Prevent Website Impersonation
- New Russia-Linked CosmicEnergy ICS Malware Could Disrupt Electric Grids
