Police nab first class graduate, five others over Internet fraud (Photo)

The Police Special Fraud Unit, PSFU, has smashed a syndicate which specialises in designing multinational organisations’ websites to defraud unsuspecting members of the public, particularly applicants, and arrested six members.

Among the suspects are a first class honours graduate and two final year students of the Federal University of Technology Akure, FUTA.

The suspects’ modus oparadi, according to the unit, include using logos of multinational companies to place online advertisements for jobs and scholarships and demanding application fee from interested individuals.

Luck ran out for the suspects after the unit received a petition from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, last August, that a website designed as ‘OFID Scholarship Website’ (OPEC Fund for International Development for World Student Aid   Scholarship) with OFID name and logo is being used to defraud unsuspecting Nigerian applicants.

How they were arrested

Explaining how they were arrested, spokesperson for the unit, Ngozi Isintume-Agu, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, said: “The petition dated August 22, 2013, said in the website, applicants were required to pay a fee of N2,500 and over 2,000 applicants responded through FirstBank account number 2020874607 and Access Bank account number 0056941009 with the name, OFID WSAS NG.

“The petitioner stated further that it was one of the victims that contacted OFID via facebook, accusing it of being an accomplice in the fraud.

“ The Cybercrime Section of the unit swung into action and the mastermind of the fraud, one Falade Oluwapelumi Ayotunde, was arrested.

“His arrest led to the arrest of five other syndicate members. Police investigation so far revealed that over 2,000 applicants paid N2,500 each into the two bank accounts provided by the suspects and the principal suspect is the only signatory to both accounts.