The police command in Kaduna State has arrested three suspected Internet fraudsters for allegedly defrauding students of a higher institution of over N60 million.
The command’s public relations officer, ASP Mansir Hassan, confirmed the arrest in a statement issued on Wednesday in Kaduna.
Mr Hassan gave the names of the suspects as Muhammad Uthman Busari of Narayi Kaduna, AbdulAzeez Hamza of Hayin Dan-mani Kaduna and Noel Nims Audiya.
Mr Hassan said the suspects had successfully scammed over 300 unsuspecting students of Kaduna State University (KASU) of their tuition fees amounting to N60 million.
“They compromised the students’ registration portal and took undue advantage of students who chose to pay their fees online rather than via the normal banking platforms.
“The suspects often collect tuition fees from students in full but will pay a lesser amount into the State’s Treasury Single Account (TSA).
“They further go and intercept and manipulate the electronic transaction receipts from the TSA to read complete payment,” he said.
According to him, so far, the suspects have short-changed over 300 students of KASU and the total amount involved is put at over N60 million.
He said the principal suspect (Busaril) had used proceeds from the fraud to build and furnish his house, purchase a car, and buy electronic appliances, gadgets and plots of land both in Kaduna and Kwara States.
He added that the suspects had since been charged to court for prosecution.
He said: “In order to checkmate activities of computer-related crimes in the state, the command, the Commissioner of Police, Mr Audu Ali, recently established a cybercrime unit.”
He said the newly established cybercrime unit was aimed at investigating cybercrime-related offences.
“Thus, victims of social media account hacking, fake purchase alerts, deceptive social romance, cryptocurrency/Forex frauds, among many other offences, within the state, should forward their complaints to the CP through the newly created unit for diligent investigation,” he said.
(NAN)