‘I steal money through Sim swap to feed my family’

by Gabriel Ogunjobi

An independent marketer with leading telecommunication firm MTN, Ahmed, Osman Alabi has disclosed that he took to stealing money from customers’ bank accounts through sim swap in order to feed his family.

Alabi, 29, was paraded alongside his accomplices- Chinedu Eche, 28; Chibuzor Ogochukwu,29, and Okechukwu Oke,30, were paraded by the Niger State Police Command.

Their modus operandi involves getting information from sim cards of customers who approach them for assistance at recalling their passwords.

Alabi explained that he had been copying the bank account details of unsuspecting victims through which he carried out unlawful transfers to ‘ghost accounts’.

He said: “This is the second time I am involved in such activities but it has not been easy getting money to take care of my family. I am the one who bears all the responsibilities of my family and being in school has not been easy especially as the MTN connect work is not going well anymore.”

Explaining his tactics, Alabi explained that he had been transferring stolen money to bank accounts belonging to some volunteers, with whom he would later share the money with.

The Integrated Science Student of the University of Abuja disclosed further that most of his victims were customers who gave him their personal details for retrieval of lost sim cards or registration of new sim cards.

The suspects were arrested following a petition written by one Kabiru Babayo, who alleged that over N500,000 was unlawfully withdrawn from his account.

Alabi confessed that he transferred the money to the account given to him by Chinedu Eche who lived in the same area with him in Suleja and who claimed to have ghost accounts that cannot be traced.

Also confessing, Chinedu, a footballer and waiter claimed he never knew the money was came through fraudulent means.

“I was in my house when Alabi called me that he wanted to transfer money and asked for a First Bank account. He said the money belongs to an Alhaji whose children wanted to defraud him because he does not give them money. I asked him if it had anything to do with robbery and he said no; that was why I got involved.”

The two other suspects denied knowing Alabi. They said they were contacted by Chinedu to provide an account number which Ogochukwu provided.

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“It was Mr. Oke that reached out to me that the person he works with wanted to pay him through First Bank account number and asked me to send mine which I did.
“When the money, N500,000 was sent I withdrew it and gave it to him. I don’t know any of them apart from Oke. I was surprised when I was arrested and during questioning, I led them to him because he was the one who contacted me.”

Confessing, Oke admitted he received a sum of N100,000 for his role in providing the account and that he gave Ogochukwu a sum of N25,000 after he was given his share of the money.

Police spokesman, Muhammad Abubakar, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) said the suspects had confessed to belonging to a group of ‘yahoo boys’ who specialize in luring and duping people of their money.
He said that the case was still under investigation adding that the suspects would be charged to court upon completion of the investigation.