According to the Nigerian police, hackers broke into an old generation bank (name withheld) and stole a staggering N523,337,100 in one day.
The bank hacking gang has already been busted by the authorities, who have detained two of its members.
The Police Special Fraud Unit (PSFU), which is looking into the issue, however, stated that they have intensified their search for other members of the gang who are still at large.
According to Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), PSFU, SP. Eyitayo Johnson, the fraudsters used the accounts of 18 different customers to defraud the bank of N523,337,100.00, and they removed the money using the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), cash withdrawals from ATMs, POS machines, and e-transfers.
“The Legal Section of the Police PSFU, Ikoyi-Lagos; headed by CSP. E. A. Jackson, has successfully obtained an order of the Federal High Court siting in Lagos for the Preservation/Forfeiture/Attachment of a net sum of N523,337,100.00 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
”The coordinated cyber-attack was carried out during the weekend of Saturday April 23,2022, through Sunday April 24, 2022 to the early hours of Monday April 24, 2022 before business opened.
”In the course of the investigation, the sum of N160,287,071.47 has been recovered from different banks; with two suspects arrested,while operatives are following other leads in order to apprehend the remaining members of the syndicate”.
He said the suspects would be charged to Court as soon as investigations are concluded.
Anyasinti Josephine Nneka, PSFU’s Commissioner of Police, has advised financial institutions and banks on the necessity of stepping up their cyber-security surveillance and conducting routine background checks on employees with access to sensitive data in order to prevent banks from becoming vulnerable to cyber-attacks. She also urged the general public to look into the causes of any unforeseen inflows into their accounts.
When money are discovered to have been incorrectly credited, the recipient should work with their banks and take deliberate steps to reverse or reroute them because doing so is against the law.
