Voice of America
11 Sep 2019, 05:35 GMT+10
WASHINGTON - Nearly 250 people have been arrested in Nigeria and the United States in one of the largest coordinated law enforcement operations aimed at disrupting a mushrooming email fraud scam that targets businesses and individual victims, officials announced on Tuesday.
The four-month global operation netted a total of 281 arrests, including 167 in Nigeria and 74 in the United States, the U.S. Justice Department said in a statement. Arrests were also made in Turkey, Ghana, France, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia and Britain. The operation, dubbed reWired, led to the seizure of nearly $3.7 million.
The disproportionately large number of arrests in Nigeria stemmed from close coordination between U.S. and Nigerian law enforcement authorities, officials said. Nigeria has long been plagued by a reputation for online fraud committed by so-called "yahoo-yahoo" boys.
The announcement came just weeks after U.S. prosecutors indicted 77 Nigerian nationals and three others with participating in a conspiracy to steal millions of dollars from businesses and individuals through an online scheme known as Business Email Compromise.
The BEC scam involves targeting employees with access to company finances and tricking them into making unauthorized wire transfers into accounts controlled by fraudsters. Scammers involved in BEC also target individual victims through so-called "romance fraud" and "elderly fraud."
Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said a "sizeable number" of the 77 Nigerian suspects indicted in the United States had been arrested.
"Our efforts in coordinating the EFCC/FBI joint operations in Nigeria recorded tremendous successes" against "the infamous yahoo-yahoo boys," said the EFCC's director of information, Mohammed Abba, according to AFP.
U.S. Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen said coordination with domestic and international partners made the operation "more successful."
"The Department of Justice has increased efforts in taking aggressive enforcement action against fraudsters who are targeting American citizens and their businesses in business email compromise schemes and other cyber-enabled financial crimes," Rosen said.
Business Email Compromise is a $26 billion online scam. According to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center, nearly $1.3 billion in losses were reported from BEC and its variant, Email Account Compromise, in 2018. That was nearly twice as much as was reported in 2017.
The Justice Department has stepped up efforts to investigate and prosecute BEC schemes, setting up a "counteraction group" to coordinate BEC cases.
Through the arrests, "we're sending a clear message to the criminals who orchestrate these BEC schemes: We'll keep coming after you, no matter where you are," FBI Director Christopher Wray said. "And to the public, we'll keep doing whatever we can to protect you."
A similar operation last year resulted in the arrest of 74 people involved in BEC scams, and the seizure of $2.4 million, according to the Justice Department.
Get a daily dose of Kenya Star news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Kenya Star.
More InformationThe Palestine Liberation Organization's Central Council approved on Thursday the creation of the position of vice president for its...
New Delhi [India], April 25 (ANI): India on Thursday donated 4.8 tons of vaccines to Afghanistan, including vaccines for rabies, tetanus,...
(250424) -- BULAWAYO (ZIMBABWE), April 24, 2025 (Xinhua) -- A Zimbabwean man learns about traditional Chinese medicine at the Chinese...
BEIJING, April 24 (Xinhua) -- China launched the Shenzhou-20 crewed spaceship Thursday, continuing efforts to advance space technology...
(250424) -- WINDHOEK, April 24, 2025 (Xinhua) -- People attend an event marking the International Girls in ICT Day in Windhoek, Namibia,...
DUBAI, 24th April, 2025 (WAM) -- Dubai Future Foundation (DFF), through the Dubai Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DCAI), has partnered...
THE VATICAN - The world is in shock and mourning on Easter Monday as it woke to the news that Pope Francis had died. Having recently...
Dehradun (Uttarakhand) [India], April 25 (ANI): Security checks have been intensified in Paltan Bazaar, a well-known market in Dehradun,...
Durg (Chhattisgarh) [India], April 25 (ANI): Congress leader and former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has expressed shock...
Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], April 25 (ANI): In the aftermath of the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, the...
Moscow [Russia], April 25 (ANI): Following the terrorist attack on tourists in Pahalgam, Pahalgam, Abhay Kumar Singh, United Russia...
(250425) -- BANDUNG, April 25, 2025 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Ambassador to Indonesia Wang Lutong delivers a speech at an international academic...