TechPression

Tag: FBI

  • FBI most-wanted Nigerian cybercriminal Abiola Kayode extradited to U.S. from Ghana over multi-million dolllar email scam

    FBI most-wanted Nigerian cybercriminal Abiola Kayode extradited to U.S. from Ghana over multi-million dolllar email scam

    Abiola Kayode, a 37-year-old Nigerian who had been on the FBI‘s Most Wanted Cyber Criminal List, has been extradited from Ghana to Nebraska, United States. This came after he was indicted in August 2019 for conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

    The United States Attorney’s Office, District of Nebraska, said in a statement on Thursday that Kayode was taken into custody by Ghanaian police in April 2023. He was turned over to FBI special agents who transported him to Nebraska following a formal U.S. request for extradition.

    Judge Michael D. Nelson, a United States Magistrate, ordered his detention pending trial when he appeared in court on December 11, 2024.

    Read also: FBI traces Bobo Chicago’s $2.8m scam to African Shrine; Wale Ogundana’s nightclub licence revoked

    Kayode Abiola, co-conspirators’ Business Email Compromise scheme: mode of operation

    Between January 2015 and September 2016, Kayode allegedly took part in a Business Email Compromise scheme that defrauded companies in Nebraska and other states of over $6 million.

    In the BEC scheme, employees were tricked into making fraudulent wire transfers by posing as company officials. By pretending to be authentic, these emails persuaded companies to move substantial quantities of money to accounts under Kayode and his accomplices’ control.

    Kayode allegedly supplied bank account information that was used to transfer illegal payments, according to the authorities. Many of these accounts belonged to people who were victims of online romance scams, and they were tricked into sending the stolen funds further to other bank accounts provided by Kayode and his accomplices.

    Kayode’s accomplices serving prison sentences

    Several of Kayode’s accomplices have already been apprehended. Adewale Aniyeloye received a 96-month jail term and a $1.57 million restitution order in February 2019.

    Pelumi Fawehinimi was sentenced to 72 months in prison and ordered to pay $1.01 million in March 2019.

    In January 2020, Onome Ijomone, another co-conspirator, was extradited from Poland and given a sentence of 60 months in jail along with $508,934 in reparations.

    Following his successful extradition from Nigeria, co-conspirator Alex Ogunshakin, who supplied bank accounts for the scheme, was given a 45-month prison sentence in October 2024.

    Read also: Uganda seeks Interpol assistance to track hackers, masterminds of BoU multi-million dollar heist

    FBI vows to go after the remaining four co-conspirators 

    Speaking in a statement, FBI Omaha Special Agent in Charge Eugene Kowel said, “Four years ago, we identified six Nigerian nationals suspected of defrauding individual victims and businesses in Nebraska and other states of millions of dollars.”

    “Today, Abiola Kayode is the second of those co-conspirators to be extradited to stand trial in Nebraska. Our message to the remaining four co-conspirators; we are coming for you. Dismantling cyber-criminal groups that victimize U.S. citizens is a priority for the FBI, DOJ, and our international law enforcement partners.”

    “The FBI, working together with our partners in Ghana, particularly the Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Justice, the Ghana Police Service – INTERPOL, and the Ghana Immigration Service, will continue to pursue and bring to justice criminals who engage in Business Email Compromise and other fraud schemes.”

  • FBI traces Bobo Chicago’s $2.8m scam to African Shrine; Wale Ogundana’s nightclub licence revoked

    FBI traces Bobo Chicago’s $2.8m scam to African Shrine; Wale Ogundana’s nightclub licence revoked

    Agents of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation have exposed a web of fraud connecting suspected Nigerian scammer Oluyomi Omobolanle Bombata, alias Bobo Chicago, to African Shrine, a nightclub in Las Vegas.

    The discovery consequently led the Nevada state government to revoke the club’s licence and ban its owner Wale Ogundana from engaging in nightlife and entertainment-related businesses

    Read also: Hackers stole $17 million from Bank of Uganda, incident under investigation

    FBI traces Bobo Chicago’s $2.8 million in stolen funds

    The FBI arrested Bobo Chicago, 25, in Illinois on November 20. Investigators, using advanced financial tracking tools, uncovered a $394,000 wire transfer from the alleged fraudster to the African Shrine. This discovery prompted Nevada authorities to revoke Mr Ogundana’s nightclub licence and ban him from operating in any entertainment-related businesses.

    The fraud, which spanned from June to October 2023, involved hacking into email accounts of individuals and corporations to siphon funds into fraudulent accounts. So far, $2.8 million has been traced to these schemes, with the African Shrine receiving a portion of the stolen money.

    Nightclub licence revoked

    In response to the findings, Nevada officials revoked Mr Ogundana’s licence to operate the African Shrine. The move delivers a major financial blow to the nightclub owner in a city where nightlife is a key economic driver. Mr Ogundana has yet to issue a public statement on his potential involvement in the fraud or his knowledge of the illicit funds.

    Bobo Chicago faces fraud charges

    After his arrest in Illinois, Bobo Chicago was transferred to Oklahoma, where the alleged crimes were committed. He now faces a five-count charge of fraud and claims he cannot afford private legal representation, relying instead on a state-appointed public defender.

    The FBI’s sophisticated financial forensics and digital tracking tools played a crucial role in uncovering the fraud network. By following online transfers and analysing transaction patterns, agents were able to link the stolen funds to Bobo Chicago’s accomplices and the African Shrine. Investigators are continuing to probe Mr Ogundana’s activities in Las Vegas to determine his level of involvement.

    Read also: EFCC freezes #548.6 million linked to crypto platforms ByBit and KuCoin

    A broader pattern of cybercrime

    This case is the latest in a series of fraud schemes linked to Nigerian nationals in the United States. High-profile scammers such as Ramon Abbas, known as Hushpuppi, and his associate Mr Woodberry are currently serving prison terms for similar crimes.

    The FBI remains committed to dismantling fraud networks and leveraging advanced technology to track stolen funds and bring perpetrators to justice. This case underscores the power of digital evidence in exposing hidden connections and holding those involved accountable.

  • FBI arrests suspected Nigerian fraudster “Bobo Chicago” for $2.8 million business email scam

    FBI arrests suspected Nigerian fraudster “Bobo Chicago” for $2.8 million business email scam

    The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has arrested Oluyomi Omobolanle Bombata, popularly known as “Bobo Chicago” and “Bola Flexx,” for allegedly orchestrating a business email compromise scheme that defrauded companies and individuals of $2.8 million in the U.S.

    The 25-year-old was taken into custody on November 20 in Chicago, Illinois, based on an arrest warrant issued in Oklahoma. His arrest follows multiple criminal complaints and a detailed investigation that flagged his activities as fraudulent and highly organised.

    Read also: Hackers stole $17 million from Bank of Uganda, incident under investigation

    Bobo Chicago reportedly targeted Nigerians living in the Houston metropolitan area before relocating to Chicago to evade detection. After his arrest, he was transferred to Oklahoma, where the alleged crimes were committed. Federal prosecutors have charged him with five criminal offences: wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and engaging in unlawful monetary transactions. These offences are believed to have been committed between June 2023 and October 2023.

    Bobo Chicago allegedly hacked individual and companies accounts

    According to investigators, Bobo Chicago and his co-conspirator hacked into the accounts of numerous companies and individuals within the Eastern District of Oklahoma to execute the fraud. Using a combination of phishing emails and other hacking techniques, he allegedly manipulated his victims into transferring funds to accounts he controlled. Of the stolen $2.8 million, over $300,000 was reportedly spent at a well-known liquor store, raising suspicions about the store owner’s potential involvement in the scheme.

    Judge Beth Jantz of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois approved the transfer of Bobo Chicago to Oklahoma, where he will face prosecution. During his initial court appearance, he claimed to have no financial resources to hire a defence attorney and was subsequently assigned a public defender. This has fuelled speculation that he might be more interested in serving the sentence rather than contest the charges.

    Law enforcement agents have also detained Bobo Chicago’s alleged co-conspirator, who remains in custody. Authorities continue to investigate the full scope of the scheme and are working to recover the stolen funds.

    Read also: EFCC freezes #548.6 million linked to crypto platforms ByBit and KuCoin
    The arrest of Bobo Chicago adds to a growing list of Nigerians implicated in high-profile fraud cases in the United States. Other notorious figures include Hushpuppi and Mr Woodberry, who are serving lengthy prison sentences at Fort Dix correctional facility in New Jersey for similar crimes involving millions of dollars. These cases underscore the increasing sophistication of online fraud and the FBI’s ongoing efforts to crack down on cybercriminals operating within U.S. jurisdiction.

    The FBI has reiterated their commitment to holding perpetrators accountable, emphasising that business email compromise schemes pose significant threats to companies and individuals alike.

  • FBI, experts warn against posting children’s photos on Social Media

    FBI, experts warn against posting children’s photos on Social Media

    Digital security experts and the FBI are issuing strong warnings to parents about the dangers of posting images of their children on social media platforms. 

    The proliferation of advanced generative artificial intelligence (AI) programs has made it alarmingly easy for criminals to manipulate publicly posted photos of minors, creating realistic-looking explicit materials.

    As the volume of Child Sexual Abuse Materials (CSAM) continues to rise, child protection organizations and law enforcement agencies find themselves overwhelmed by the surge in reports related to child sex abuse. Many experts believe that the current law enforcement system is ill-equipped to keep up with online sexual predators.

    Read also: South Africa limits offensive content on Facebook, WhatsApp

    Attorneys General Petition for Action

    The issue has grown to such an extent that over 50 attorneys general from various states petitioned Congress to establish a national commission dedicated to studying AI-generated CSAM. They are also advocating for updated legislation to better protect children and effectively combat CSAM.

    In their letter to Congress, the attorneys general stated, “While internet crimes against children are already being actively prosecuted, we are concerned that AI is creating a new frontier for abuse that makes prosecution more difficult. We are engaged in a race against time to protect the children of our country from the dangers of AI. Indeed, the proverbial walls of the city have already been breached. Now is the time to act.”

    Legislative Initiatives

    Several legislators across the United States have introduced bills in the past year aimed at safeguarding children from CSAM:

    STOP CSAM Act of 2023: Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) proposed this legislation in April, allowing victims of CSAM to sue social media platforms hosting sexually explicit content.

    Child Online Safety Modernization Act of 2023: In August, Representatives Ann Wagner (R-Mo.) and Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas) introduced this act. It aims to enhance the information provided to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s (NCMEC) tip line. Currently, many reports lack sufficient information to track child abusers, leading to inefficiencies.

    FBI Warnings and Urgent PSA

    The FBI issued a public service announcement earlier, urgently advising parents and guardians against posting photos of their children online. The agency highlighted the risks associated with malicious actors creating synthetic content, often referred to as “deepfakes,” by manipulating benign photographs or videos to target victims.

    According to the FBI, victims, including minors and non-consenting adults, have reported cases where their photos or videos were altered into explicit content. These manipulated images or videos were then widely circulated on social media or adult websites, often as part of harassment or sextortion schemes.

    The Harms of Deepfakes and Sextortion

    Yaron Litwin, a digital safety expert, emphasized the severe emotional, mental, and physical harm that deepfakes and sextortion can inflict on minors. Cybercriminals can rapidly create deepfakes using generative AI and use the threat of publishing these manipulated images to extort money or sexual acts from minors. In such situations, victims face the difficult choice of public humiliation, complying with the criminal’s demands, or even resorting to extreme measures to escape the situation.

    The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) reported a staggering increase in CSAM reports, with over 32 million in 2022, averaging around 87,000 reports per day. This represents an 82% surge compared to 2021.

    Kenya Launches Cybercrime Protection Game for Children

    Recommendations for Parents

    Digital safety experts recommend that parents exercise caution when posting images of their children online, particularly on open social media platforms. It is advisable to restrict sharing of such images within closed networks where individuals are known and trusted. Moreover, open and direct communication between parents and children about online risks and the posting of photos is crucial in protecting minors from CSAM threats.

    The rise in AI-generated CSAM underscores the growing need for responsible online behaviour and robust legal frameworks to address this evolving challenge effectively.

  • Scammers Hire Uber To Take Old Woman to the Bank

    Scammers Hire Uber To Take Old Woman to the Bank

    Internet scam has become rampant today, where con artists utilize every loophole on the internet to loot their victims. Techpression also reported an event where the black axe infiltrates Irish banks and IT firms to commit fraud. Therefore every individual should be on the watch.

    Here is and also event where scammers sent an uber to take an older woman to the bank to make her transfer a certain amount of money to them.

    Towson, a Maryland-native Travis Hardaway, an app developer who formerly worked as a music educator, according to Hardaway, his mother responded to an email she received from Best Buy/GeekSquad about an appliance installation about a month ago. 

    According to Hardaway, the fraudulent email could not have come at a more inopportune time: The dishwasher that belonged to his mother had recently stopped working, and she had recently paid to have a brand new one delivered and set up in the home.

    In order to ensure that an 80-year-old woman who responded to a well-timed email scam went to the bank and wired the fraudsters the money, email scammers sent an Uber to her home. Her story is a stark reminder of the lengths criminals will go to con their victims, even if she figured out she was being conned before she set out for the bank.

    Hardaway, who is the son told KrebsOnSecurity “I think that’s where she got confused because she thought the email was about her dishwasher installation,” 

    Read: Cybersecurity Experts Discover Fake Windows 11 Upgrades

    How It Started

    According to Hardaway, his mother dialled the phone number that was provided in the fake BestBuy email and was informed by the scammers that she owed $160 for the installation of the new system. At the time, this information seemed reasonable. After that, the con artists requested that she put remote administration software on her computer so that they could control it from a distance and assist her in completing the transaction by sending the money.

    After she logged into her bank and savings accounts with scammers observing her screen, the fraudster on the phone claimed that instead of taking $160 out of her account, they had accidentally transferred $160,000 into her account. 

    This occurred after she had logged into her bank and savings accounts. They told her they required her assistance to guarantee that the money would be “returned.”

    “They took control of her screen and said they had accidentally transferred $160,000 into her account,” Hardaway said. “The person on the phone told her he was going to lose his job over this transfer error, that he didn’t know what to do. So they sent her some information about where to wire the money and asked her to go to the bank. But she told them, ‘I don’t drive,’ and they told her, “No problem, we’re sending an Uber to come to help you to the bank.’”

    Mother Escaped Being Scammed

    Hardaway stated that he was out of town when all of this transpired and that happily, his mother eventually became frustrated and gave up attempting to help the scammers.

    “They told her they were sending an Uber to pick her up and that it was on its way,” Hardaway said. “I don’t know if the Uber ever got there. But my mom went over to the neighbour’s house, and they saw it for what it was — a scam.”

    Furthermore,  Hardaway said he has now reinstalled the operating system on her computer, reset her passwords, and wiped her hard drive clean. However, he claims that the event has left his mother feeling shaken.

    “She’s really second-guessing herself now,” Hardaway said. “She’s not computer-savvy, and just moved down here from Boston during COVID to be near us, but she’s living by herself and feeling isolated and vulnerable, and stuff like this doesn’t help.”

    Observations

    Every year, millions of elderly people in the United States fall prey to some form of financial fraud or confidence scheme. These scams can take many forms, including those involving romance, lotteries, and sweepstakes, to mention a few. Once they have gained their victims’ confidence, criminals can contact them directly through the internet, the phone, and the mail, or indirectly through the television and radio. Swindlers are inclined to continue a plan after it has shown effectiveness because they stand to make considerable additional financial benefit from doing so.

    According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), elderly people are frequently the focus of criminal activity because of their propensity to be trustworthy and kind. More significantly, they typically have financial savings, own property, and have high credit, all of which make them appealing targets for scammers. Scammers target people with these characteristics because they are easier to take advantage of.

    “Additionally, seniors may be less inclined to report fraud because they don’t know how, or they may be too ashamed of having been scammed,” the FBI warned in May. “They might also be concerned that their relatives will lose confidence in their abilities to manage their own financial affairs. And when an elderly victim does report a crime, they may be unable to supply detailed information to investigators.”

    In 2021, the Internet Crime Complaint Center of the FBI reported $1.7 billion in losses from more than 92,000 victims over the age of 60. (IC3). Over the next year, the FBI expects a 74% rise in the number of reported thefts.