The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on July 31, 2013 arrested a notorious fraudster who specialises in defrauding unsuspecting members of the public through fraudulent bank credit alerts.
Wale Olaide, popularly known as Wale Dollar, met his waterloo when he duped one Abdulhamid Abubakar, a bureau de change operator, of N5 million.
Olaide had contacted Abubakar’s younger brother, Hashim, also a bureau de change operator, based in Lome, Togo Republic, that he wanted to purchase N5 million equivalent in CFA Francs.
Olaide requested for his Nigerian bank account to enable him pay in the naira equivalent.
Hashim asked Abubakar to send his First Bank account details to Olaide.
Abubakar acted immediately, sent his account details and after a while, he received an alert supposedly from his bank that N5 million had been credited to his account domiciled at the Seme Border branch.
Upon receiving the alert, Abubakar informed his brother who in turn released the CFA Franc equivalent of N5 million to Olaide.
The next day Abubakar visited the bank to withdraw the money, but to his dismay his account balance didn’t reflect the said transaction.
He complained to the branch manager and his statement of account was rolled out but the transaction was not reflected.
When Abubakar noticed that the bank could not help, he approached the EFCC.
Series of investigative initiatives by the EFCC yielded the arrest of Olaide, who is believed to be a member of a deadly syndicate involved in duping unsuspecting members of the public through fraudulent banking notification alerts.
While the EFCC is working to unravel the intricate network of operations of the syndicate, the Commission has appealed to members of the public to be wary of this new trend in criminality by fraudsters who use phony credit alerts to defraud others.
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