A Nigerian fraudster thought to be behind “online frauds” valued at £45 million (R839 million) is behind bars in the UK, according a report by Wired. By Staff Writer
Wired said the man known only as ‘Mike,’ faces charges of hacking, conspiracy and obtaining money under false pretences after he was arrested in Port Harcourt, southern Nigeria.
It’s believed the man, 40, was the “head of a network” of 40 criminals across Nigeria, Malaysia, and South Africa.
“The network compromised email accounts of small to medium businesses around the world including in Australia, Canada, India, Malaysia, Romania, South Africa, Thailand and the US, with the financial victims mainly other companies dealing with these compromised accounts,” Wired quoted Interpol’s statement.
Wired reported that one major web-based company lost £16,000 after scammers registered almost identical domain names to the firm they were targeting. Using email addresses created with the fake URLs, messages were sent to CEOs, some of whom believed they were coming from their own staff members, and issued notices to make immediate payments.