A notorious hacker, Michael
Williams, 28, has been arrested by the Lagos State Police Command for allegedly
defrauding a car dealer, Abiogun Adewale, of N28m.
He was said to have paid
the sum for a Porsche car through a fake electronic transfer.
The suspect, who was
arrested in the Lekki area of Lagos, was paraded at the command headquarters,
Ikeja, on Monday by the state Commissioner of Police, Edgal Imohimi.
The police boss said the
police received a petition against the suspect, who he described as a
“professional hacker.”
He said, “My office
received a complaint that there is a syndicate that buys exotic cars and
configures a computer programme that sends a fake payment alert to the seller.
“The seller, upon receiving
this alert, verifies the alert either through ATM or through Internet banking
and then releases the car to the syndicate.
“In this case, when the car
dealer went to his bank for his statement of account, it was discovered that
the alert and transfer of N28m to his account was only a fake electronic
transfer; the money did not register in his account.
“The modus operandi of this
suspect is very interesting because he seems to have a very good mastery of the
cyber environment. He also creates a credit card through software known as
cyber-ghost 12. When the credit card matures, it is then funded through a
hacked Swiss account. Any transaction anybody is doing through this Swiss
account, the suspect manipulates it and wires the fund into his contrived
credit card.
“The interesting part of
this report is that the hacker has the ability to shut down the CCTV system of
any organisation here in Nigeria for a period of 67 minutes. That is a window
period during which any crime can be committed.”
CP Imohimi said the case
was of importance to financial institutions, adding that Nigerian banks should
employ certified hackers to secure their systems from hackers.
He added that further
interrogation of the suspect would continue to get information of crimes he
could commit through the Internet.
The former medical doctor
was also said to have led detectives to Asaba, Delta State, and Owerri, Imo
State, where two Camry cars he bought in a similar fashion, were recovered.
The suspect said he was
eased out of the medical profession after he discovered a faster way of
conducting Caesarean Section.
He said, “I have worked in
three Lagos hospitals. The issue with Nigeria is that when they see that you
are better, they look for a way to ease you out. After I was sent out, I
secured a visa to Canada, where I acquired hacking expertise.”
He said his mode of
operation involved, “creating a credit card or getting old credit cards online
and funding them after monitoring transactions of Swiss code accounts of
anybody making $1m or above $200m transaction.
He said, “I monitor movie
actors and actresses in the US. I monitor a particular actor, who is based in
America (US). He transfers money every week. I hacked into his Swiss code
account, which involved breaking of 360 codes.
“I divert funds online into
a secured credit card which I use to buy any kind of powerful software online
and get more knowledge online.”
Williams said he had access
to customers’ bank accounts and used their money for spending sprees with his
credit cards.
He also said as a hacker,
he could do anything online, adding that he bought goods worth not more than
N30m with credit cards and made false payments in bits to unsuspecting victims.
The suspect said, “Banks in
Nigeria are not like banks abroad.
“In Nigeria, you can sit
down and do any kind of transfer. There are no certified hackers in banks here;
there is nobody to secure you.”
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