Four Nigerians studying in the Philippine have been arrested over their alleged involvement in an international syndicate that hacks and siphons funds from banks in the country.
A statement released by Vic Lorenzo, the Cybercrime Division chief of the National Bureau of Investigation, claims the suspected Nigerian fraudsters illicit transactions were traced when they hacked a system of a Philippine bank and allegedly transferred at least P100 million into a different account”.
The Bureau alleged that the Nigerians violated the Access Device Law, Anti-Cybercrime law, and falsification of public documents. It however did not give the names of the accused Nigerians.
“The international syndicate is complicated.. to the point that they study the system’s flaws. Once they see a weakness, they will take advantage of that.
“One of the suspects’ Filipina girlfriend admitted to having used her account to deposit and withdraw money amounting to at least P2 million, which was supposedly for tuition.
“Blank ATM cards and bank receipts were confiscated from the suspects.” the statement read
The accused Nigerians have denied the allegations. In a chat with ABS CBN, the Nigerians said they were in the country to study and knew nothing about the hacking incident.
“The funds withdrawn were donations from a Nigerian student community,” one of them said.
