A Nigerian man has pleaded guilty and is serving 10 years for stealing $20 million from victims who saved up for buying homes.
According to the MalwareBytes Newsletter, these actors feel that their actions are not hurting anyone, yet, this home buying gone wrong did in fact hurt the buyer, causing them to go in to depression and possibly have other issues not discussed within the article.
No names, nor locations were given.
The Nigerian man, 33, lived in the United Kingdom. He also had other co-conspirators helping him as well.
If you want the definition of sophistocated, this is.
The actors took control of email and intercepted those who delbt with payments to tell the buyer what bank account to use.
Maybe the buyer did not know the company, when it came to how to pay them in such large amounts.
I can not blame the company nor the buyer for this. This is because email can be compromised, and the actors went to great length to hide their tracks and trick employees to click on links.
While getting people to click links is not sophistocated, the rest of this is … so that’s why it is getting my sophistocation flag here.
According to the article, it is advisable to doublech where the funds are going.
You should:
- Use trusted contact information: always verify account details using contact information from a trusted source, and check whether it matches the information provided in the suspicious email or invoice.
- Call the company directly: Use a known, verified phone number to call the company and confirm any changes to payment instructions or account details.
- Use secure verification methods: If available, use secure portals or platforms provided by legitimate vendors to verify account information.
- If possible, follow up whether the payment came through at the legitimate receiver’s end while you still have the option to reverse the transaction.
Read the rest of the article from Malwarebytes. Its titled Scammer robs homebuyers of life savings in $20 million theft spree if you want to read it.
The suspects name is Babatunde Francis Ayeni. Trust me, he had to have help to pull all of this off.