Daily Trust (Abuja)
Boco Edet
23 October 2009
Abuja — The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has shut down over 800 scam websites and busted 18 syndicates of email fraudsters in a drive to check cyber-crime that Nigeria is notorious for.
"Over 800 fraudulent email addresses have been identified and shut down," EFCC chairman Farida Waziri said in Las Vegas, United States, yesterday.
"There have been 18 arrests of high profile syndicates operating cyber-crime organisations," 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 different 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.
Farida said a latest anti-cyber crime technology called Project Eagle Claw has the capacity to shut down up to 5,000 fraudulent emails monthly when it is fully deployed.
"We expect that 'Eagle Claw' as conceived will be 100 per cent operational within six months. It will take Nigeria out of the top 10 list of countries with the highest incidence of fraudulent emails," Farida said.
"The EFCC is fine tuning security modalities with Microsoft and upon full deployment, the capacity to take down fraudulent emails will increase to 5,000 monthly. Further it is projected that advisory mails to be sent to victims and potential victims will be about 230,000 monthly," she added.
The schemes of Nigerian scammers range from advance fee fraud, lottery scams, phishing, identify theft, and employment and auction scams.
Some of the notorious scam emails Internet users receive from fraudsters include messages posing as if they were coming from online payment company Interswitch, Guaranty Trust Bank, Central Bank of Nigeria and mobile phone company MTN.
Most of these emails have links to fake websites and ask for personal details like account number, pin code and residential address.
The companies being impersonated have alerted customers via the media of such scams and have adopted additional security measures to protect their users, but the scammers kept on at it.
Farida said before Project Eagle Claw, the commission's cyber crime fight revolved around cyber raids and investigation of petitions. She added, however, that "the proactive stance of the new leadership required a radical departure and Eagle Claw was developed. When it is fully deployed, it will afford the EFCC the option of either monitoring or shutting down all fraudulent email addresses. The EFCC would also have identified victims and potential victims and advised them that their email has been compromised."
Top officials of the National Conference of Black Mayors (NCBM), led by their President Ms Heather Hudson had during a visit to the EFCC chairman in Abuja on July 29 invited her to address the annual event as part of efforts to foster greater relationship between the US authorities and the anti-corruption commission.
Her address at the Black Mayors Convention was preceded by series of meetings and interactions with top US government officials on Monday and Tuesday in Washington where issues on Nigeria's anti-graft war and support for EFCC initiatives topped the agenda.
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