Tag Archive for: Nigeria

Nigerian citizen to stand trial in Memphis for cyber crimes

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A Nigerian citizen living in Accra, Ghana, has been extradited to Memphis to stand trial for an indictment charging him with cyber crimes and identity theft.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, a federal grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee indicted 64-year-old Babatunde Martins with wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Martins was also charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit computer fraud.

The indictment alleges that Martins, along with other Africa-based co-conspirators, hacked into the servers and email systems of a Memphis-based real estate company in June and July of 2016. Martins and his co-conspirators allegedly sent fake emails to “relevant business parties,” and redirected money to final destinations in Africa.

The indictment was handed down on August 23, 2017, but Martins did not make his initial appearance in a West Tennessee court until Monday, December 9, 2019.

The Department of Justice says that Martins is also charged with perpetrating romance scams, fake check scams, gold-buying scams, advance-fee scams, and credit card scams. The indictment alleges that proceeds from these scams were transferred from the U.S. to locations in Africa.

Five other people have pleaded guilty to being involved in the scheme. Olufalojimi Abegunde, 33, and Javier Luis Ramos-Alonso, 30, were convicted in March after a week-long trial in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee. Abegunde received a 78-month sentence, and Ramos-Alonso received a 31-month sentence for their roles in the scheme.

The Department of Justice says that several others are still at large.

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CBN limits USSD transactions to N100,000 per day

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EFFECTIVE from June this year bank customers will not be able to use Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) channel to conduct transactions more than N100, 000 per day.

Also they will have to use both their PIN and a soft token to authenticate transactions above N20, 000. The USSD is a technology platform for online payments.

In addition, banks must allow their customers the option to opt out of USSD channel for financial transactions.

These were highlights of the ‘Regulatory Framework for the use of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) for Financial Services in Nigeria’, issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, yesterday.

In a circular announcing the framework, Director, Banking System and Payments Department, CBN, stated: “The vast applications of the USSD technology, in terms of available services have raised the issue of the risks inherent in the channel. In this regard, concerns have been expressed on the likely exposure of CBN approved entities to the possible breaching of the USSD accessed financial services in view of likely vulnerabilities in the technology and the ever growing threats.

‘‘Furthermore, the implementation in Nigeria has created multiple USSD channels to customers, thereby increasing their exposure to risk, without a common standard for all. ‘‘This framework therefore, seeks to establish the rules and risk mitigation considerations when implementing USSD for financial services offering in Nigeria.”

Among other things, the framework stated: “USSD based financial transaction requires encryption to protect the integrity of the financial information. To this end, Financial Institutions providing use of the USSD channel shall: Ensure that the customer receives notification on the status of every transaction conducted through the channel; Not use the USSD service to relay details of other electronic banking channels (in case of banks), to their customers, to prevent compromise of other electronic banking channels through the USSD channel; Avail the customers the option to opt in/out of the USSD channel for financial Transactions.’’

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NSCDC secures conviction of 18 persons accused of downloading films

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The Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC), Kano State Command, has secured the conviction of 18 persons accused of downloading and sending Hausa films in Kano.

The command’s Public Relations officer, Mr Ibrahim Idris, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kano on Monday.

Idris said the convicts were arraigned before a Magistrate’s Court in Kano on Friday, April 7, after they were arrested around Dakata in Ungoggo Local Government Area of the state. Read more

Global Surveilance: North Korea Hackers Target Nigerian Banks

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A new report from a Russian online cyber security firm, Kaspersky, has observed that North Korean hackers are attacking banks in 18 countries, including Nigeria.

The organisation noted in its report that this could be regarded as the biggest bank heists in world history.

Banks and security researchers have previously identified four similar cyber-heists attempted on financial institutions in Bangladesh, Ecuador, the Philippines and Vietnam.

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