Cyber-Attack: Fraudsters Hack Nigerian Bank, Transfer N523m to 225 Accounts in 3 days.

Two suspected fraudsters have been arrested for hacking a customer's bank account, stealing over N500 million.

The suspects transferred the stolen money to 18 different accounts in the same bank before moving the same money into 225 other accounts in 22 other banks.

SP Eyitayo Johnson, spokesperson for the Police Special Fraud Unit in Ikoyi, said the police have secured a court order for the forfeiture of the stolen money while investigation continues.

Suspected fraudsters have hacked a customer’s account domiciled in an old generation bank and fraudulently transferred N523,337,100 (N523.3 million) from the account to 18 different accounts in the same bank.

SP Eyitayo Johnson, the spokesperson for the Police Special Fraud Unit in Ikoyi, Lagos state, made this known in a statement on Wednesday, September 21.

He said the suspects during a three-day cyber-attack transferred the money from the 18 accounts into 225 other accounts domiciled in 22 other banks and financial institutions.

 
It was gathered that the coordinated cyber-attack was carried out on Saturday, April 23, till the early hours of Monday, April 25, 2022, before businesses opened.

SP Johnson said two suspects had been arrested in connection to the crime while efforts are ongoing to arrest others. 

Police get court order to forfeit stolen N523m 

Johnson further stated that the legal section of the Police Special Fraud Unit has successfully obtained a court order for the preservation/forfeiture/attachment of the N523m fraudulently transferred by the fraudsters. 

He said investigations revealed that the sum of N160,287,071.47 was recovered from different banks. The suspects will be charged to court as soon as investigations are concluded, the police spokesperson said.

Police commissioner sends message to banks 

Speaking on the development, the commissioner of police, SFU, Anyasinti Nneka, advised banks and other financial institutions to increase their cyber-security surveillance and conduct routine background checks on staff who have login privileges that could be compromised to make banks porous to cyber-attacks.

The police chief also enjoined members of the public on the need to investigate sources of unexpected inflows into their accounts.

"Where such funds are found to have been wrongly credited, the recipient should cooperate with their banks and make conscious efforts to reverse or re-route the same. Utilising such funds is a criminal offence,” the police commisioner said.