Nigeria's anti-graft agency has arrested 792 suspects after raiding a building believed to be a base for scammers who lured victims with romantic advances and pressured them to hand over cash for fake cryptocurrency investments. announced that he had been arrested.
The suspects, including 148 Chinese nationals and 40 Filipinos, were arrested at the seven-story Big Leaf Building in Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos on December 10, said Wilson Uwujaren, spokesperson for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. .
The luxurious building housed a call center that primarily served victims from the Americas and Europe, he added.
Uwjaren told reporters that the employees contacted people through social media and messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and Instagram, luring them online and offering them apparently lucrative investment opportunities. He told the group.
Once victims were duped, they were pressured to send money for fake cryptocurrency schemes and other non-existent projects.
“The Nigerian accomplices were recruited by foreign actors to seek out victims through online phishing, primarily targeting Americans, Canadians, Mexicans, and several other European countries.” he said.
“If Nigerians can win the trust of potential victims, foreigners will take over the real job of deceiving victims,” he said.
Uwjaren said the commission is working with international partners and will investigate potential links to organized crime. He added that investigators seized computers, phones and vehicles in the raid.
