Some ISON workers in Ibadan numbering about ten, have on Thursday while appearing in court, revealed how they swap victims’ phone sim cards to empty their bank accounts.
In a statement released by the Oyo State Police Command on Thursday on the arrested ISON workers in Ibadan, they warned the public to be vigilant in order not to fall victim to new tricks used by fraudsters to break into bank accounts.
The ten ISON workers arrested in Ibadan, were identified as Omotayo Azeez, 29, Olufade Abdulgafar, 33, Adesina Peter, 32, Odugbesan Gbenga, 39, Shiyanbola Harry, 32, Effiog Udofia, 52, Arowosegbe Adewale, 43, Adesanlu Kayode, 32, Onasile Abiola, 25, and Temitope Fatai, 21.
The State’s Police Commissioner, Shina Olukolu while speaking on the case, said:
“On March 14, Adeniyi Ige, the Security Manager of Airtel Network Limited, reported that his company received complaints from customers regarding the withdrawal of various amounts of money from their bank accounts, through fraudulent SIM cards swapping”.
The complainants included Prof. Olapade James, the Dean, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Ibadan, who reported that on February 21, he experienced loss of signal on his line.
Following this, he said he started receiving notification of debit alerts from his bank account via email, adding that N180,000 was fraudulently withdrawn from his bank account.
Also, one Godwin Unigbe reported that on February 22, N3m was fraudulently withdrawn from his bank account. Benjamin Udo Bassey reported that N460,000 was fraudulently withdrawn from his account between February 20 and 21.”
Following the reports, an internal investigation traced the fraudulent SIM card swapping to ISON BPO, a call centre to network service providers, including Airtel Network, located in Ibadan.
This led to the arrest of three ISON workers directly involved in the fraudulent act. Further investigation led to the arrest of seven other suspects…
They (ISON workers) will call you to give certain information and as you give the information step by step, what follows is that your phone will go blank.
After some minutes, it will be back again, and a few minutes later, you will be receiving debit alerts via email. They have swapped your SIM card. Don’t give information to somebody you do not know.”
