In May 2018, a 28-year-old medical doctor was arrested for using a fake bank alert to buy a Porsche car worth N28 million.
The Doctor introduced himself as Michael Thompson Williams and while speaking with journalists after his arrest, alleged that most Nigerian banks were unsafe and could be easily hacked.
He was arrested by operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Ikeja, Lagos State Police Command.
He was arrested under the watch of the former Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Edgal Imohimi.
It will be recalled that when Imohimi presented the suspect to journalists, the CP had allowed him to cover his face with a cloth, citing fundamental human rights of the suspect.
It was believed that the Doctor was charged to court after the parade.
In 2020, however, the doctor has once again been arrested for fraud.
His present arrest has raised a lot of questions, among them being whether he was ever charged to court and if he was, what transpired in the court, leading to him already out in the streets and carrying on with his former crimes.
His latest arrest was by policemen attached to Area J Police Command and after investigating, the policemen felt that his crime was more under the jurisdiction of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and had promptly handed him over.
Today, his name has changed from Doctor Michael Thompson Williams to Williams Michael Ogwezi, aka Dr. Williams.
According to the EFCC, the suspect had been parading himself as a staff of the Commission in order to defraud his unsuspecting victims.
The EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, said: “The suspect, a member of a syndicate that specialises in forging identity cards of the Commission as well as those of other law enforcement agencies, was arrested in Lagos, following a report received by the Commission from the Nigeria Police Area Command, Ajah, Lagos.
“Investigation revealed that the suspect had defrauded one of his victims, a lady, of jewellery valued at N10,000,000.00 before his arrest.
“The suspect, in his statement to the Commission, confessed to have been involved in the alleged crime.
“Items recovered from him at the point of arrest include an identity card with inscription of EFCC, EFCC face masks, three laptops, three mobile phones and two vehicles, Lexus and Hyundai Genesis.
“He’ll soon be charged to court.”
Speaking with journalists in 2018, Williams claimed to have worked with frontline hospitals in Lagos and used to hack into customers’ accounts with banks and financial institutions.
He also monitored private email messages of prominent Nigerians.
According to him, through his hacking expertise, he had been able to acquire a property in Canada and boasted that he could buy goods worth N40 million with credit cards and make false payments in tranches to unsuspecting victims.
He was arrested on March 23, 2018 after a complainant, Abidogun Adewale, a car dealer, lodged a complaint with the police.
Adewale had complained that a syndicate bought exotic cars worth N28 million, paid into his bank account, but on visiting his banker, he discovered he had actually received a fake bank alert, meaning the money was never paid.
Imohimi had also explained: “The suspect is a member of a syndicate that goes to car shops, buys a car, configures a computer programme that would send a fake payment alert to the seller and by so doing, fraudulently obtains the car.
“The suspect thereafter requested for the seller’s bank account number and made it look like he had paid him via the fake alert to his phone using HTTP tunnel.com.
“Thereafter, the suspect drove the car away, unknown to the seller that he had been scammed.
“A police manhunt was launched on the fleeing suspect by the command, dispatching detectives of the FSARS, led by CSP Sanusi Mohammed.
“This led to the arrest of the suspect in Lekki, Lagos. Upon his arrest, he led detectives to Asaba, Delta State, where the stolen Porsche car was recovered.
“He also led detectives to Owerri, Imo State where two Camry cars he stole in a similar fashion were recovered.”
Williams in enlightening journalists on his modus operandi proved that he had a good mastery of cyber space and thus created a credit card through “cyber ghost 12”.
He further said: “When the credit card matures, it is then funded through a hacked Swiss account.
“Any transaction anybody is doing through Swiss account is manipulated and funds wired to his contrived credit card.
“This is possible with the aid of cyber ghost 12 HTTP/tunnel.azinytv4/vpn, virtual private network.
Through the credit card, the suspect could buy any software he needs to work and protect his job so that he cannot be traced.”
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