The Police Special Fraud Unit (PSFU) in Lagos says it has arrested a 28-year-old undergraduate, Timothy Fashina Oluwabukola, of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic (MAPOLY) in Abeokuta, Ogun State, for cyber fraud, money laundering, fraudulent conversion, and stealing of airtime valued at a staggering N1,227,140,000.00.
His alleged accomplice, Anthony Imonina Odemerho, said to be the proprietor of Resign Regal Academy in Benin City, Edo State, was also arrested.
Their arrests were made following a petition to the Police by a GSM operator in Nigeria after an audit report showed discrepancies between Revenue Collection Accounts and Fulfillments.
It was revealed that between February and March 2024, Timothy Fashina, along with unidentified third-party web/application developers of the GSM Company, allegedly used a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to encrypt their data and mask their IP addresses.
They reportedly compromised the GSM provider’s network by using authorization keys to gain access to the Application Programme Interface (API) of the firm.
Fashina allegedly manipulated the API to replicate N100,000.00 airtime tickets genuinely bought on the network, resulting in fraudulent airtime fulfillments totalling N1,227,140,000.00, sent to GSM numbers 08XXXXXX72, 08XXXXXX14, and 07XXXXXX28.
Subsequently, Imonina reportedly downloaded the mobile app of the GSM provider from the Play Store and signed in, using Fashina’s phone number.
To access the app dashboard, Imonina needed an OTP from the GSM provider, sent as an SMS to the phone hosting the sim card.
Imonina reportedly contacted Fashina, who promptly provided the OTP before it timed out. After inputting the OTP, Imonina was said to have gained access to the app and converted fraudulently obtained airtime to data using the app’s features.
“He then shared/sold the data to 52 unsuspecting subscribers, including individuals and companies,” Police said.
The sum of N1,314,644,835 [over N1.3bn] received for the sold data was allegedly traced to Imonina’s bank accounts, while he reportedly transferred N1,220,147,000.00 [over N1.2bn] to Fashina after deducting his commission of N87,497,835.00.
According to Police, the proceeds of the alleged fraud include:
- 110 hectares of farmland in Iseyin, Oyo State (N40 million)
- An uncompleted building in Oluwo, Abeokuta, Ogun State (N6 million)
- A two-storey warehouse in Okeyeke, Abeokuta, Ogun State (value yet to be determined)
- inventory of stocks in the warehouse (N50 million)
- Towing/truck head (N24 million)
- A crypto wallet with 21,000 USDT
- Gifts to friends (N16 million)
- Two Hiace buses
- A Toyota Sienna
- A Volkswagen bus.
The legal section of the Unit has filed criminal charges against the suspects at the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos.
“Efforts are underway to apprehend the third-party developers involved in the syndicate and to identify other assets acquired with the proceeds of fraud, PSFU said.
Source: The Eagle Online
