The head of an international criminal network behind thousands of online fraud cases has been arrested in Nigeria.
The “Nigerian Prince”, a 40-year-old man known as 'Mike', has scammed hundreds of gullible victims for profits totalling more than $60 million (€53.6 million).
Online scams are not new to internet, and they’re seen as a way of earning easy money in poverty-ridden Nigeria.
“There are so many people trying to make a business out of this. It’s quite a thriving business. One, it’s so easy to establish you just need a few hundred dollars to buy a computer, to buy internet, to buy data and that’s business,” Sam Olukoya, a journalist based in Lagos said in an interview.
One of the crudest e-mail scams involves a “Nigerian prince” introducing himself and then asking the reader to send him money, with the promise of receiving a larger sum in the end. The e-mails are easily recognizable as scams and have become internet memes.
The Nigerian Prince has also starred in internet memes. Photo: quickmeme.com“DEAR SIR, I am Prince Kufour Otumfuo the elder son of the late King Otumfuo Opoku ware II whose demise occur following a brief illness. Before the death of my father, King Otumfuo Opoku ware II, I was authorised and officially known as the next successor and beneficiary of my father's property according to African Traditional rite. …” the e-mail would start, according to the Washington Post.
Mike, however, used slightly less obvious methods. He ran one of the most successful internet scam networks, with more than 40 ‘employees’ across Nigeria, Malaysia and South Africa, according to Interpol. He also had money laundering contacts in China, Europe and the US, providing him with bank account details.
"The Nigerian Prince" is believed to have hacked into the accounts of medium- and small-scale businesses and used those to ask people to pay money into accounts he controlled. They would send out fake messages to buyers with instructions for payment to a bank account under the criminal’s control.
He also used a method called “the CEO scam”, where the email account of a high-level executive is hacked and a request for a wire transfer is sent to another employee responsible for handling these requests. The money is then paid into a designated bank account held by the criminal.
Although Nigeria is not the only country these scams originate from, a Microsoft report has estimated that around 51 per cent of all email scams come from the country.
Mike, along with a 38-year-old hacker arrested by Nigerian authorities, now faces charges including hacking, conspiracy and obtaining money under false pretences.