Nigeria’s anti-corruption watch dog, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has shut down over 800 scam web sites and busted 18 syndicates of email fraudsters in a drive to check cyber-crime. “Over 800 fraudulent email addresses have been identified and shut down,” EFCC Chairperson Farida Waziri said in Las Vegas, United States, last week.

“There have been 18 arrests of high profile syndicates operating cyber-crime organizations,” she told a gathering of US mayors at the 35th Annual Convention of Black Mayors on Global Vision for Local Action: A Paradigm of Connectivity in the African Diaspora.

On a daily basis, Internet users in Nigeria and around the world receive scam emails from fraudsters who impersonate businesses like banks and mobile phone companies. These web forgeries are designed to trick people into revealing personal or financial information by imitating legitimate sources.

Some of the fraudsters hack into private email accounts of prominent personalities and send emails to their contacts claiming to be stranded and asking for emergency cash. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 419, CBN, Central Bank of Nigeria, Eagle Claw, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Farida Waziri, GTBank, Guaranty Trust Bank, Interswitch, Microsoft, MTN, Nigeria