As the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, intesifies the war against fraudulent activities involving Nigerians, it’s looking like the Nigerian commercial institutions are daily perfecting ways of abetting and aiding forex frauds.
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One of such cases was related by a United Kingdom-based Nigerian, David Ayeni, who is a victim of a forex scam, thereby setting his pocket back by over ten million naira (N10mln).
According to the victim who spoke exclusively with Freelanews, over ten Nigerians in the UK have lost almost N200million to this nefarious activities.
“I was approached some months ago by Taiye Fashina and Adebayo Oluwo about a business deal which involved depositing naira into a Nigerian bank and getting paid in pounds at agreed rate.
“At the beginning I was circumspect but I was prevailed upon by a trusted friend, who claimed there was no risk involved.
“However, in order not to totally let my guards down, I insisted that any naira deposit I would be paying would be distributed into the designated account for the business and then also into the personal accounts of the parties involved, that’s Fashina and Oluwo’s accounts, as a future proof of existing business transactions,” he explained.
After signing an agreement, like other victims involved, Ayeni was given the designated account number 2001362008 which is domiciled with Kuda Microfinance bank under the name Tobechukwu Prosper Diolu.
Due to his insistence on having the personal account numbers of those involved, JTB Infinity Records 0078529963 Sterling Bank and Fashina Tunji 0098451539 Sterling Bank were released to him.
“We commenced the business and we were paid first and second batch. But after the third batch of transfer, we were informed by Fashina Tunji that those supplying them pounds (Diolu Tobechukwu Prosper, Enyinda Wosu and Chituru Wosu) no longer brought the funds. Therefore, they couldn’t remit to us,” he said.
While sharing evidences of payment with our correspondent, Ayeni sounded a note of warning to other Nigerians or possibly other nationals to be weary of such business transactions, while naming those involved in defrauding him and others of almost N200,000,000 (two hundred million naira).
“I’m using this opportunity to appeal to relevant authorities to interrogate the unscrupulous duo of Taiye Fashina and Adebayo Oluwo and get them to refund my money to me,” Ayeni appealed.
A security expert who spoke to Freelanews explained that the Nigerians are victims of organised crime activity which is now quickly gaining prominence.
“What happened to the victims can also be brought under forex scam. It is a tripartite process, involving three parties. To simplify it, let’s say there are Party A, B and C.
“Party A tells Party he has some pounds and would sell to the latter at a ridiculous exchange rate in naira. All what Party B needs to do is to pay the agreed rate in naira to a particular Nigerian account, which in this was Kuda Bank’s account.
“But because the larger the amount, the bigger the profit, Party B will then source for people and agree to also sell pounds to them at a mouth watering exchange rate if only they would pay naira equivalent of the agreed rate to the Nigerian account.
“And this third category of people, Party C will then forward naira equivalent to Party B’s Nigerian account, who would then turn over the money to Party A. Once the transfers are confirmed, Party A would then transfer the agreed amount in pounds to Party B, who would now remove his profit and pass the rest to Party C,” he explained.
The expert, however, further explained that there is a catch.
“While Party B may not reveal the existence of Party A to Party C, what Party A may not tell Party B is that the cheap pounds are proceeds of forex scam, known in local parlance as Yahoo Yahoo.
“In order to clean the crime money, Party A uses Party B’s innocent account as the receiver of funds from hacked accounts which the latter would believe is the agreed payment,” he stated.
He also explained that in the case of Ayeni and co, it is possible that Party B’s account has been flagged by the authorities and blocked, making the account inaccessible for Party B to remit funds to Party C.
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator and a recipient of the D9112 Superstar Icon Award, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
