The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Makurdi has arrested three suspects for SIM swap fraud, conspiracy and obtaining money by false pretence to the tune of N7 million.
The commission’s Public Relations Officer, Mr Wilson Uwujaren, made this known in a press statement in Abuja on Wednesday.
According to him, the suspects are Adewuyi Adebayo, 31; Osikoya Gboyega, 44; and Akintunde Ogunrinde, 47.
“They were arrested at different locations in Lagos and transferred to Makurdi, Benue.
“The petitioner alleged that on Feb. 18, 2018 he noticed his MTN line had stopped working as no calls or messages came to his phone and the phone displayed a message saying, ‘invalid SIM card’.
“He went to the MTN office to lodge a complaint but was told to apply for a welcome back SIM.
“That was not successful as someone else had swapped his SIM card in Abia.
“He immediately contacted his account officer at FCMB to inform them of the development and to change his alert phone number to another line only to discover that transactions had occurred on his account without his consent.”
Uwujaren further said that the threshold limit for online transfers on the petitioner’s account had also been increased above N500,000 and the sum of N7,107,540 removed from his account.
“Further investigations revealed that the suspects masterminded the alleged fraud. The suspects will soon be charged to court as soon as investigations are concluded.”
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