Fraudsters hack bank, transfer N523m to 225 accounts

Suspected fraudsters, during a three-day cyber-attack, have hacked a customer’s account domiciled in an old generation bank and fraudulently transferred N523,337,100 from the account to 18 different accounts in the same bank.

The spokesperson for the Police Special Fraud Unit in Ikoyi, Lagos State, SP Eyitayo Johnson, in a statement on Wednesday, said the suspects subsequently transferred the money from the 18 accounts into 225 other accounts domiciled in 22 other banks and financial institutions.

He said the coordinated cyber-attack was carried out on Saturday, April 23, till the early hours of Monday April 25, 2022, before business opened, adding that two suspects had been arrested in connection to the crime.

Johnson said, “The legal section of the Police Special Fraud Unit in Ikoyi-Lagos, headed by CSP E. A. Jackson, has successfully obtained an order of the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, for the preservation/forfeiture/attachment of a net sum of N523,337,100 fraudulently transferred by Internet fraudsters who hacked a customer’s account domiciled in one of the old-generation banks and posted the funds into 18 different accounts in the same bank before transmitting same to 225 other accounts in 22 banks/financial institutions.

“In the course of the investigation, the sum of N160,287,071.47 was recovered from different banks; with two suspects arrested, while operatives are following other leads in order to apprehend the remaining members of the syndicate. The suspects will be charge66d to court as soon as investigations are concluded.”