by Achadu Gabriel, Kaduna
Police in Kaduna have arrested a syndicate of three Internet fraudsters, who are notorious for defrauding unsuspecting students of Kaduna State University (KASU) of their tuition fees, a statement signed by the Command’s spokesman, ASP Mansir Hassan, has asserted.
The arrested suspects are Muhammad Uthman Busari of Nariya Kaduna, AbdulAzeez Hamza of Hayin Dan-Mani Kaduna and Noel Nims Audiya, respectively. They are mainly cybercafe operators, 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, according to the release on Wednesday, often collect tuition fees from students in full but will pay a lesser amount into the State’s Treasury Single Account (TSA) and go further to intercept and manipulate the electronic transaction receipts from the TSA to read “complete payment.”
“So far, the suspects have short-changed over three hundred students of KASU, and the total amount involved is put at over sixty million naira, which the principal suspect, Muhammad Uthman Busari, has used in building and furnishing a house, purchase of a car, electronic appliances, gadgets and plots of lands in both Kaduna and Kwara States.
“The suspects have since been charged to court for prosecution. Consequently, in order to checkmate activities of computer-related crimes in the State, the Kaduna Police Command wishes to inform members of the public of the newly-established Cybercrime Unit by the Commissioner of Police, CP A.D. Ali, psc, which is targeted at investigating cybercrime-related offences.
“Thus, victims of social media accounts hacking, fake purchase alerts, deceptive social romance, cryptocurrency/Forex frauds, among many other offences within the State, should forward their complaints to the Commissioner of Police through the newly created unit, for diligent investigation,” it stated.
It stated that, “Internet fraudsters meet their Waterloo, as Kaduna State Police Command, Commissioner of Police establish Command’s cybercrime desk.”