By; AMOS TAUNA, Kaduna
Kaduna State Police Command has arrested a syndicate of three internet fraudsters for defrauding unsuspecting students of Kaduna State University (KASU) of their tuition fees to the tune of N60 million.
The Command’s Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Mansir Hassan, in a statement on Wednesday, said the suspected fraudsters have so far, defrauded over 300 students of the university.
The Police spokesman gave names of the suspects as, Muhammad Uthman Busari of Nariya Kaduna, AbdulAzeez Hamza of Hayin Dan-mani Kaduna and Noel Nims Audiya.
According to him, “the suspects who are mainly cybercafe operators compromised the students’ registration portal and took undue advantage of students who chose to pay their fees online rather than via the normal banking platforms.
“The suspects often collects tuition fees from students in full but will pay a lesser amount into the State’s Treasury Single Account (TSA) and go further to intercept and manipulate the electronic transaction receipts from the TSA to read complete payment.
“So far, the suspects have short-changed over three hundred students of KASU and the total amount involved is put at over sixty million naira which the principal suspect Muhammad Uthman Busari have used in building and furnishing a house, purchase of a car, electronic appliances, gadgets and plots of lands in both Kaduna and Kwara States.
“The suspects have since been charged to court for prosecution. In order to checkmate activities of computer related crimes in the State, the Kaduna Police Command wishes to inform members of the public of the newly established cybercrime unit by the Commissioner of Police, CP A.D. Ali, psc which is targeted at investigating cybercrime related offences.
“Thus, victims of social media accounts hacking, fake purchase alerts, deceptive social romance, cryptocurrency/Forex frauds among many other offences within the State, should forward their complaints to the Commissioner of Police through the newly created unit for diligent investigation.”
