Authorities arrest 800 crypto romance scammers in Nigeria targeting Americans, Europeans

Nearly 800 fraudsters, allegedly responsible for working a sophisticated romance scam targeting mostly Americans and Europeans on Instagram and WhatsApp, have been busted by Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

A total of 792 suspects were arrested during a surprise raid of a seven-story luxury office building on Victoria Island in Lagos – apparently being used as a hub for the scam operations.

EFCC Executive Chairman Ola Olukoyedea said the massive cybercriminal bust-up happened in the nation’s commercial capital on December 10th after the agency was tipped off by an outside source.

A total of 148 Chinese, 40 Filipinos, two Kharzartans, one Pakistani, and one Indonesian were apprehended during the operation, Olukoyede said.

According to the EFCC, Nigeria's anti-graft agency, the syndicate headquarters was used to train Nigerian accomplices on how to initiate romance and investment scams, even stealing the identities of those accomplices, to commit more fraud and criminal activities.

As typical with most romance scams, the bad actors would lure victims with offers of romantic interest, and once hooked, the criminals would press their victims to hand over cash for fake cryptocurrency investments or other non-existent projects.

“The luxury building housed a call center mostly targeting victims from America, Canada, Mexico, and Europe,” EFCC spokesperson Wilson Uwujaren said.

EFCC Bursts Syndicate of 792 Cryptocurrency Investment, Romance Fraud Suspects in Lagos
… Arrests 193 Chinese, Arabs, Filipinos, Others

The Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ola Olukoyede, has disclosed that the Commission, in a… pic.twitter.com/623RP95Dxu

undefined EFCC Nigeria (@officialEFCC) December 16, 2024

How the scam worked

The criminals primarily used social media and messaging platforms, including WhatsApp, Instagram, and Telegram to phish for victims, Uwujaren revealed.

Investigators said young Nigerians, first tested for computer and typing skills, would be given “desktop computers and mobile devices and then taken through a two-week induction on how to impersonate foreign females in romance scam chats.”

All of the seven floors were “equipped with high-end desktop computers,” while a stash of at least 500 SIM cards from local telcos was recovered by investigators on the 5th floor.

The recruits would be given fake profiles or be assigned WhatsApp accounts linked to foreign telephone numbers, especially from Germany and Italy.

The victims, once romantically engaged with the perpetrators, would then be steered towards making “phantom business and investment transactions” through a fake cryptocurrency platform called Yooto-dot-com.

“For those that showed interest, activation fees for an account on the platform start from $35 USD,” the EFCC spokesperson said.

Once the Nigerians were able to win the confidence of would-be victims, the foreigners would take over the actual task of defrauding the victims, he added.

Nigerians are being taken advantage of by criminals

The Nigerians recruited for the fraud were paid in cash and said to be unaware as to what transactions were taking place.

EFCC chairman Olukoyede said there is a big misconception that Nigerians are behind the tons of fraud emanating from the country.

“Foreigners are taking advantage of our nation's unfortunate reputation as a haven of frauds to establish a foothold here to disguise their atrocious criminal enterprises. But, as this operation has shown, there will be no hiding places for criminals in Nigeria,” Olukoyede said.

Additionally, the chairman said the EFCC is working with foregoing partners to determine the extent of the scam, more about the perpetrators, and if the syndicate was collaborating with any other organized international fraud cells.

In November, Meta – the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp – announced it had booted over two million fake accounts from its social media platforms that were targeting users from overseas scam centers in South Asia.

The cybercriminal cartels were said to have employed “forced labor” to carry out a wide range of malicious activity, including “cryptocurrency, gambling, loan, and investment scams (known as pig butchering) as well as other impersonation scams,” Meta said.

In July, Meta successfully removed more than 65,000 sextortion accounts off Facebook and Instagram, many of them run by the criminal syndicate known as the Yahoo Boys, also located in Nigeria.

Furthermore in October, Interpol’s African Joint Operation against Cybercrime (AFJOC) busted two highly organized romance scam rings operating in West Africa and Nigeria.

Nicknamed “The Contender 2.0” operation by authorities, the scams, which took place from August 2023 through April 2024, allegedly bilked victims out of millions of dollars.