Two phone hackers arrested for withdrawing victims’ monies
The Enugu State Police Command has arrested two persons for allegedly using stolen SIM cards to defraud the owners in the state.
A total of 30 cards of different telecommunication networks was said to have been recovered from the suspects, belonging to yet-to-be-identified victims.
The suspects, identified as Abuchi Ogbu, 20 and Christian Mba, 21, allegedly specialise in using victims’ SIM cards to access their bank details and withdraw their money.
Ogbu is from Ndiagu Akpugo in Nkanu West Local Government Area, resides at 17 New Jerusalem Coal Camp, Enugu, while Mba is from Amechi Idodo in Nkanu East Local Government Area and residing at 23 New Jerusalem Coal Camp, Enugu.
Police spokesman in the state, SP Ebere Amaraizu, said on Saturday that the two suspects were arrested last Friday.
The suspects confessed to operating in three groups; one specialises in stealing phones, takes the SIM cards to Mba, who is a cybercafé operator, to access the BVN and other bank details of their victims and hack into their accounts.
The other group, headed by Ogbu is to generate the PIN code of victims through the information gathered on the SIM cards.
The codes are passed to the person, who then accesses the victims’ accounts and withdraws the money.
“They have wreaked havoc on many victims, including the latest victim who they swindled N250,000,’’ Amaraizu said.
He said that one of the suspects, Ogbu, pleaded for forgiveness and blamed the situation on peer group influence.
