EFCC detains three female staff of First Bank of Nigeria Plc for defrauding customers through the bank’s Western Union Money Transfer facility

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"Every dream has a price," said Arnold Schwarzenegeer in one of his epoch making movies, The Insecticide". If only the trio of Mrs. Adewolu Olanike, head of banking operations; Akinmoyade Jokotola, officer-in- charge of Western Union Money Transfer operations and Onyeinyechi Ehme, cashier at First Bank of Nigeria Plc, had realised the price awaiting them when they began to toy with public funds entrusted in their care as bankers, they would have given a second thought to their plan.

The three bankers are now in EFCC net for hacking the web and intercepting hard currency transferred by customers of the bank abroad to their relatives in Nigeria through Western Union Money Transfer facilities owned and managed by the bank.

Found in their possession were 28 international passports, 43 driver's licences and some National Identity cards. The documents were found on the suspects when they were arrested on January 17, following a petition to the commission, although another source said the EFCC operatives acted on a tip-off. The EFCC swooped on the bank as early as 7 o’clock morning of that day.

The detectives allegedly informed the manager of their mission only on arrival at the bank premises, thus giving the suspects little time to prepare their minds. They were given permission to conduct investigations inside the bank’s premises.

Before the operation, the EFCC official had taken position at strategic corners at both the banking hall and outside.

It was gathered that when Olanike heard that EFCC operatives were on the bank premises, she alerted Jokotola and asked her to clear her desk of any incriminating documents. In what typified a common home video scene, Jokotola who was in black chino material jacket, threw a waste-proof bag containing fake documents to Ehime. But unknown to them, an EFCC operative was standing in front of Ehme. The detective intercepted the bag in the air and emptied its content. Fake documents with different names and addresses were discovered on the three women who were immediately whisked to the Ikoyi premises of the commission.

"When we announced our presence at the bank through the branch manager, the suspects became jittery and tried to sneak out of the banking hall. Our men stopped them. They were caught in the act," said a senior EFFC operative handling the case at the Ikoyi office of the commission.

It took the operatives over three months of trailing the suspects before the sun finally set on them recently at one of the branches of the bank in Lagos.

How group operated

An EFCC operative who pleaded anonymity gave an insight into how the group operated: "We have had several petitions from people who claimed that they were unsuccessful in collecting their money through First Bank's Western Union Money Transfer. We discovered that it would be difficult for a stranger to collect another person's money, as there is no mole in the bank.

"Investigations showed that the fake identity cards were used to impersonate the original owners of the money. Only the sender, the bank and the receiver have access to the Western Union information. Once the workers in the bank get the information, they would prepare false documents in the receiver’s name and call a member of their syndicate to come and collect the money before the owner arrives," he said.

The office of the operatives noted further that their move into First Bank arose from constant complaints from customers whose monies have been stolen or declared missing by the bank. EFCC added that before this onslaught, it had made contacts with and sought clearance from the international money transfer body to clampdown on the bank.

Crime Record

EFCC, howeve,r disclosed that Mrs. Ehme had previously been arrested thrice in connection with Western Union money fraud. "She was first arrested on the November 27, 2005 and granted bail on the request of the bank. She soon fell into the same crime again and was arrested on June 18, 2006 and lastly on November 8, 2006, which led to her arraignment in the court," declared the official.

Ehme it was learnt, is not a first timer in the game of hacking people’s transfers as she has several similar cases with the Lagos State Criminal Investigation Department (SICD) at Panti Street, Yaba, Lagos. Police sources said she has four case files, which would be merged and handed over to the EFCC for her prosecution.

Checks has also revealed that, the trio are friends and had joined First Bank almost at the same time and had worked in the same department. EFCC investigators said Olanike is a computer wizard and can manipulate the machine to achieve her desires whenever the need arises.

Suspects react

The women have, however, denied the allegations. Jokotolo, who has worked with the bank for 21 years and in the Western Union department for 11 years claimed that the passports and identity cards found in her possession belonged to customers of the bank.

She said "All the passports and identity cards found with me belong to my customers. Most of them forgot them with me after their transactions. Most of them know that their ID cards are with me. I called some of them and they asked me to help keep them," she said.

"I told the head of banking operations, Mrs. Adewolu, that the ID cards were forgotten with me. Some people have come to collect theirs. Others are still keeping their international passports with me' because they believe it is safe.

"I also see it as a way to lure customers to come back to the bank so as to meet my target. When operatives of the EFCC came on Friday morning, Adewolu called me and warned that I should hide the bag containing the documents so that men of the commission would not see it. She threw the bag to the cashier to hide but it was intercepted by a detective," she said.

Ehme, who has worked in the bank for three and half years, denied being a member of the syndicate. She said: "I don’t know anything about all the passports and ID cards found with my boss. All I know is that the Head of Banking Operations asked my immediate boss, Mrs. Akinmoyade to hide it in her table. She threw me a bag but I was not concentrating because I was attending to a customer.

"An EFCC operative collected the bag and emptied the contents. I only deal with the photocopy Akinmoyade gives to one. She does not give me the original passport or ID card because she does the photocopying herself.

"The photocopier is behind her cubicle in the office. She is my boss and I have had no cause to doubt whatever photocopy she gives me. Once I have a copy of the document, I pay the owner of the money.

"I have never refused to pay any money she ordered me to pay. When customers forget their passports or documents, Akinmoyade keeps it for them".

Olanike, who was granted bail on the January 18 because she is in the advanced stage of a pregnancy, also claimed ignorance. "I don't know anything about the international passports and ID cards. I only told them to tidy up because EFCC operatives were around."

Mr. Jide Ogundele, the bank's head of Brand Communication said it was the management that invited EFCC, but the commission rejected the claim.

EFCC Sources

An investigator with the agency said if customers actually forgot their documents, such should be forwarded to the customer-care unit of the bank and not any individual keeping them and that without the knowledge of the bank’s security unit. Said he: "We also observed that Akinrnoyade has over 80 percent of the number of the passports in her phone. If customers actually forgot their passports and ID cards, how come she is in possession of their numbers and is on friendly basis with them. She called one Emeka in our presence, claiming that he is one of the owners of the international passports."

According to EFCC sources, a First Bank Western Union Money Transfer syndicate which has been siphoning people’s money into private accounts was busted sometime in November last year, which is when the agency started thorough investigation of the trio into the case.

Reactions

When Saturday Independent visited some of the bank’s branches in Lagos shortly after the arrest of the three staff, some customers expressed concern over the handling of money transfer in the bank and other banks in the country. Dr. Ngozi Omezue, a management consultant based in Lagos and a customer of First Bank Plc said, she has since stopped her husband from sending money to her through Western Union "because it appears that means is no longer safe."

" I used to rely on it to receive money from my husband who stays in the United States of America (USA) but since that incident which I read about women like me feeding fat with other peoples’ money, I quickly called my husband to stop transferring money to us through that means.

"I have opened an account with another bank with a very good foreign connection and I shall henceforth be receiving money through them. I use to see the three women. They were really living big, drove posh cars and wore costly fabrics. I had since suspected that they must have been living above their income."

Another, customer of the bank, Mr. Adewunmi Kehinde, a trader in Isolo market said she once suffered similar fate when the 1000 dollars sent to her by her son who resides in Germany was diverted and cashed in a branch of First Bank in Abuja by one of the bank’s staff. She said that all efforts made to get the money back failed as nobody was prepared to listen to her story. "Since I am based in Lagos and the money was collected in Abuja, they said I had to go to Abuja and sort out things first before my case could be handled at the head office or I should be patient while they carry out their in-house investigation and get back to me. Since then, I have been waiting for them," said Kehinde.

First Bank is one out of many in the country where Internet hackers divert customers’ money sent through Western Union Money Transfer. According to an official at the Okotie Eboh, Ikoyi office of the EFCC, who would not want his name on print, "it was the rampant nature of that type of crime, that made EFCC to open a separate department and train persons specifically for this type of crime. This is what we call "internet hacking" and experts perform it. So you would also need experts to catch them. The three ladies were caught after three months of investigation.There are many sides to the First Bank staff scam, one of it is the task of finding out how the trio were able to secure such a large number of international passports. Already, operatives of EFCC have begun checks with the Department of Immigration Services in Abuja with the aim of figuring out a possible syndicate that could be assisting the web hackers in the bank and in other financial institutions across the country to secure passports. Another hard nut that sleaze busters would have to crack is the link persons with the syndicate in the area of National Identity Cards, one of the documents the suspects had in their custody when operatives stormed the office to affect their arrest.

But a top official of the commission told Daily Independent on telephone that already action has been taken in that direction. " Very soon you will here what we will come out with. The truth about internet hackers in banks is that, they are enemies of the nation’s economy and should be treated as such," said the official. Whatever way one look at the entire First Bank staff theft, there are a lot that need to be done to restore public confidence back in the First Bank’s operation of Western Union Money transfer.

Cases of fraud by banks

The Western Union scam by the bank’s staff blew open earlier in 2005, when Daily Independent reported two cases of Western Union scam in First Bank. It reported how one Mr. Chuks Murry Okoye got swindled of the $2,800 sent to him from his friend living in the United States. Another man had however gone to the Oba Akran branch with Okoye's particulars to collect the money.

Another Mrs. Cecilia Dum was defrauded of her 11,000 Euros sent to her via Western Union in the same bank.

The EFFC official stated further that, almost all banks in Nigeria have some crooks that specialise in diversion of money sent through Western Union Money Transfer. "Some time ago, we investigated a case involving Spring Bank, where a younger brother of one of its customers sent 1,500 dollars for his brothers’ Christmas. The money was meant to be collected at one of the Spring Bank branches in Aba in Abia State. But the money was intercepted by staff of Spring Bank at Dopemu branch and collected," he said.

When the customer reported the matter at the branch in Aba, he was referred to the corporate office of the bank in Lagos. The confused customer proceeded to Lagos. " When he got to the bank’s office in Victoria Island part of Lagos, he was not allowed into the office of any of the officials capable of handling his case. The security men at the gate, who had been drilled already by members of the syndicate at the branch where the offence was committed did everything possible to prevent the customer from entering the bank to see any of the senior persons," he said.

Irked by the treatment meted out to him at the gate of the bank, he consulted with his friend who advised him to see a lawyer. The source said that, it was the lawyer that petitioned EFCC on behalf of the victim, " and we started investigation and that was how we uncovered the entire shoddy deals and arrested every member of the syndicate up to the security personnel and they confessed to the crime," said the official.

The anti-graft agency said it wanted to charge the suspects to court but the bank’s management pleaded and offered to refund the money in dollars to the owners and pay compensation.

CybercafÈ Crimes

The activities of cyber cafÈ criminals constitute another dimension in corporate robbery in recent times and could spell doom to the nation’s financial sector. The First Bank staff currently in the EFCC net are the latest of this high-class crime. An official of the agency said their case would be intensely followed up to the end. "This is because we belief this style of stealing is more dangerous than Advance Fee Fraud aka "419," he said.

Yahoo Boys

According to EFCC investigators, the First Bank incident has led to a crackdown on online fraudsters popularly called "Yahoo Boys" in many part of Lagos. One of the cafÈs located in FESTAC Town in Lagos is said to belong to one of the suspects in the First Bank syndicate. "She keeps some young boys there to monitor the web and track down any Western Union funds coming into Nigeria. The cafe is also used on daily basis to send scam e-mails to unsuspecting foreigners and Nigerians alike," they said.

The EFCC has also spread its dragnets to several cyber cafÈs in major cities across the country; arresting several youths who have been duping foreigners using Internet facilities.

Last month, President Olusegun Obasanjo signed the Advance Fee Fraud Act, empowering the commission to deal with online fraudsters. Online fraud has become the pastime of many idle Nigerian youths who spend hours on the Internet in searchpeople to dupe using very enticing stories.

It was not surprising that the EFCC followed up immediately by visiting cyber cafÈs in Lagos. Notorious hideouts of online criminals such as Festac Town and Orile in Lagos have not been spared. Several cyber crime suspects aged between 18 and 25 years were caught in the act of sending scam mails to Europe, America, among others.

Arrested along with them, were the owners of the cyber cafÈs and landlords of the buildings in which they were located. A total of 74 computer systems were also confiscated during the raids and would be tendered as evidence in court.

Only recently, a new generation bank handed over to operatives of EFCC two secondary school leavers whose bank accounts were found to contain N18.7 million. The youths, who confessed to be unemployed, said they got the monies through the Internet. This is just a reflection of the kind of youths the society would breed if moral decadence continues to hold sway, one analyst said.

There have been various attempts by stakeholders in the industry, including EFCC, Cyber Crime Working Group (NCWG), a coalition of banks, switching companies and courier operators, to ensure speedy passage of the Cyber Crime Bill that would provide a legal framework on which to prosecute online fraudsters.

Mr. Basil Udotai, coordinator, NCWG, has said that the drawback being experienced in the prosecution of offenders was due to the absence of appropriate legal instrument. He said this has led to the failure of NCWG, EFCC and the Federal Bureau of Intelligence (FBI) to successfully see that online fraudsters are brought to book.

Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, chairman, EFCC, at a meeting with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and cyber cafe' operators in Abuja recently said the agency would launch an onslaught against the fraudsters. While noting that the proliferation of cyber cafÈs in the recent past has led to an upsurge in Internet related fraud like dating, employment, scholarship and lottery, Ribadu said "these activities must now be closely monitored." He said efforts should be made to discourage all-night browsing among youths.

Ribadu, lamenting the unavailability of basic text categorization filtering software by ISPs and cyber cafÈ operators in their computers, which would have prevented the abuse of the facilities by criminals, said computers at public cyber cafÈs should be configured to block access to popular hackers' websites from where fraudsters download free credit card details and obtain hints on cyber fraud techniques.

He warned online fraudsters that they would go to jail if they continue. Engineer Lanre Ajayi, president, Internet Service Providers Association of Nigeria (ISPAN), however, deferred with Ribadu. "It is not enough to say that ISPs are not doing enough to curb the menace," he said. "Some have deployed software that can identify and hinder scam mails but there is need for collaboration between EFCC and ISPs to look into the issue and identify what needs to be done." It is not all about Nigeria.

Most industry analysts disagree with the general belief in the international community that a greater percentage of the frauds originate from Nigeria.

They contend that several records and statistics show that online fraud is more prevalent in North America, Europe and Asia than in Africa. According to West African Organised Crime Section (WAOCS) in the United Kingdom and Australian, the Belgian Federal Police, the Phone Busters National Call Centre (PNCC) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, The Dutch National Fraud Bureau of the Financial Crimes unit and the Federal Bureau of Intelligence (FBI), USA, show that "some of the scam e-mails originate from other nations, mostly from West African nations such as Ghana, Togo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, etc.

Latest statistics released in March by Ultrascan Advanced Global Investigations, a Dutch private investigation firm that has been studying 419 scams worldwide for a decade, showed that companies and individuals in the United States were defrauded of about $720 million last year alone. Total losses from 37 nations to these scams are almost $3.2 billion.

Cyber CafÈ Crimes Worldwide

The United Kingdom has the second highest losses at $520 million, while Spain and Japan were tied to the third position with about $320 million in losses.

The report stated that in March last year, Luis Gottschalk, the respected founding chairman of the psychiatry department at the University of California at Irvine, USA, fell victim to the trick and wired $3 million to some people purported to be in Nigeria.

Tom Mazur, spokesman for the United States Secret Service, which investigated the scams, said the criminals capitalise on victims' emotions and on people's sympathies sometimes.

Mike Hatch, attorney general of Minnesota State, USA, said, "the bottom line is that no one has ever received the promised funds, and losses from participating in illegal foreign business deals are nearly impossible to recover."

According to, Osita Nwajah, EFCC spokesman, the provisions of the Advance Fee Fraud Act, 2006, imposes a sentence of up to 15 years without an option of fine on anyone who permits his or her premises to be used for 419 activities. The act, he said, also prescribes a jail term of up to 20 years without the option of fine for convicted 419ers.

Additional reporting by Sunday Michael, reporter