The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has nabbed 192 foreigners for alleged involvement in romance and cryptocurrency investment scams.
This is the largest of such an operation since the inception of the agency.
The suspects included 148 Chinese, 40 Filipinos, two Khazartans, one Pakistani, and one Indonesian and were nabbed
during an unannounced raid at their hideout in a seven-storey building known as the Big Leaf Building, located at No. 7, Oyin Jolayemi Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.
According to the EFCC, it’s operatives acted on actionable intelligence and months of surveillance on the activities of the syndicate, which confirmed that the foreigners were using the building, as legitimate corporate office but actually training their Nigerian accomplices on how to perpetrate love and investment scams and also used Nigerian identities for their fraudulent schemes.
The anti-graft agency further disclosed that the foreigners had recruited their Nigerian accomplices to target victims in Canada, the United States, Mexico, and various European countries through phishing schemes.
The Nigerian operatives were given desktop computers and mobile devices, creating fake profiles to engage victims in fraudulent romantic and business conversations via WhatsApp, Instagram, and Telegram, often pretending to be business professionals or romantic partners.
They encouraged victims to register on a fake online investment platform, www.yooto.com, where they were required to pay activation fees starting at $35 to open an account.
However, the EFCC has successfully dealt a significant blow to the international cartel carrying out these scams from the multi-storeyed facility, which was equipped with high-end desktop computers, contained several floors dedicated to criminal activities.
The EFCC investigators reportedly confiscated 500 SIM cards of local telecom providers, which were acquired for illicit purposes on the fifth floor.