The Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) has declared four persons wanted for allegedly swapping the mobile phone numbers of customers of some banks fraudulently and withdrawing money from their various bank accounts.
The four suspects are Derrick Obeng alias Chilling; Nicholas Gyekye alias Payges, Ezekiel Otoo and Frederick Anzi Quainoo, alias Kakra.
Their two accomplices, named by EOCO as Linda Abakah and Solomon Ofosu have been arrested with another suspect following a joint operation by EOCO, the Police and the Ghana Association of Bankers.
Abakah and Ofosu have since been sentenced to 12 months imprisonment for the offense of conspiracy to steal, stealing and money laundering by the High Court in Accra.
Following their conviction, the two are serving their sentences at the Nsawam Maximum Prison.
Modus operandi
EOCO in a press statement indicated that in April 2022, it received intelligence suggesting that there was a syndicate of fraudsters targeting some banks in Ghana and stealing funds from the accounts of customers.
It said investigations established that the modus operandi of the fraudsters was through fraudulent swapping of the mobile phone numbers of the customers.
The fraudulent swapping of the mobile numbers, EOCO explained, causes the customers’ mobile numbers to be inactive while the same numbers are activated on the suspected fraudsters’ sim cards enabling them to access and control the customers’ bank account and steal funds from the account.
Another modus operandi of the suspected fraudsters, EOCO said, was to act as Bank officials and social engineers to get customers of the banks to divulge their phone numbers, password and pin code.
After accessing these information, the suspects allegedly take over the mobile banking application of the customers’ which enables them to fraudulently withdraw funds from the bank accounts of the victims.
It said after receiving information about the activities of the suspected fraudsters, EOCO worked in collaboration with the Ghana Association of Bankers and the Ghana Police Service to identify and arrest some of the perpetrators, who were mostly based in Assin Fosu, in the Central Region.
EOCO therefore urged the public to assist it with information, which led to the arrest of the convicts.
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