EFCC Alerts On New Flight Ticket Promo, Investment Scam

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)  has warned Nigerians to be wary of a new fraudulent promo scam currently going on in the country where people are swindled after falling victim of scammers’ tricks.

The EFCC said the scheme involves the use of malware to gain unauthorised access to the account information of unsuspecting victims.  Teasers like “Promo”, ‘Investment Windows’ and other baits are usually employed  to make their victims volunteer their account information  through which fraudsters execute transactions on their behalf by sending their funds to accounts mainly in Fintech institutions.  Through this access, fraudsters then control and launder funds through the purchase of crypto currencies.

EFCC spokesman, Dele Oyewale, said in a statement yesterday that a case in point was a ‘Promo’ offering the public 50 per cent discount on ticket purchase in a leading foreign airline. Victims are led to pay a token of N500 into the account of the airline. The N500 payment which is now dressed as charity payment is the leeway through which the fraudsters gain access to their victim’s personal information.   The victims were deceived into downloading the App of the airline to be eligible for the discount.  However, after downloading the App and gaining unauthorised access to their personal details,  funds were moved from victims’  bank accounts  into an account  in a microfinance bank.

Oyewale further stated, “It is important to disclose that this fraud scheme is largely driven by an army of young Nigerians offering a paltry payment of between N1,500 and N2,000 to their victims to make them surrender a copy of their personal information details to them and sell the same information to some Fintech institutions for about N5,000.  These canvassers called themselves ‘Account Suppliers’ or ‘KYC Group.’   Information available to the commission revealed that the actors are up to 12,000 all over the country seeking account donors that will surrender their NIN registration slip, BVN,  passport photograph and other means of identification  for a little fee.  These information are then used to open accounts with Fintech companies for investment scam and sundry fraudulent schemes.”

Meanwhile, the commission has made some arrests in this regard and recoveries of money lost to fraudulent promo actors  and account suppliers are ongoing.