Nigeria nabs 800 Chinese, Filipinos, locals in ‘crypto’ scam

Nigerian authorities arrested nearly 800 individuals who orchestrated an online ‘crypto’ romance scam targeting European and American victims.

The country’s financial crime watchdog, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), led the Tuesday crackdown. According to EFCC Executive Chairman Ola Olukoyede, the agency conducted a raid on an upmarket building in Lagos, “which could be mistaken for a corporate headquarters of a financial establishment.”

With the assistance of the local police, the EFCC arrested 792 suspects: 148 were Chinese, 40 were Filipinos, two were Kharzartans, while Indonesia and Pakistan had one suspect each. The rest were Nigerians.

The operation relied on a well-orchestrated romance scam where the suspects targeted lonely men from the United States, Canada, Mexico, and some European nations. They would pose as prospective romantic partners, and once the victims were hooked, they would solicit them for money to invest in a bogus ‘crypto’ project. After the funds were remitted, they would cut the victims off and move on to the next one.

Ola revealed that the foreign nationals were the masterminds of the scam and used the Lagos den to train the locals to target the victims through online phishing.

The EFCC believes that the foreigners were solely responsible for the scamming.

“Once the Nigerians are able to win the confidence of would-be victims, the foreigners would take over the actual task of defrauding the victims and proceed to block their Nigerian accomplices from the network. This would then leave them in the dark about the transaction,” Ola told the media.

It’s a similar playbook to other ‘crypto’ scam rings across Southeast Asia where foreigners, mostly from China, recruit locals to target victims from the West. In one case, authorities busted a Chinese crime ring that impersonated Korean women to scam 122 billion won (US$92 million) from unsuspecting men. The crime syndicate recruited young employees and relocated them to Cambodia and Laos, where authorities are not as proficient in cracking down on cybercrime.

A month prior, Hong Kong police had busted a similar ring that scammed at least $46 million from victims, arresting 27 perpetrators.

EFCC believes this is the same consideration that drew them to Nigeria.

“Foreigners are taking advantage of our nation’s unfortunate reputation as a haven of frauds to establish a foothold here to disguise their atrocious criminal enterprises. But, as this operation has shown, there will be no hiding places for criminals in Nigeria,” he stated.

The EFCC has clamped down on digital asset crime this year, leading to the shutdown of several offshore exchanges and the arrest (and eventual release) of a Binance executive.

Watch: Blockchain is changing Nigeria’s tech city ecosystem

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