Crime
Unemployed driver hacks into customer’s bank account, recharges N400,000 call credit in 11 months
Operatives of the Lagos Rapid Response Squad of the Lagos Police Command have arrested a 50-year-old truck driver, Ebenezer Oyeneye, who specialized in recharging call credit from other people’s bank account.
National Daily learnt that Oyeneye resides at 4, Moyinoluwa Avenue, Ijoko Lemode, Ogun State.
He was said to have been arrested by a Decoy team of RRS.
It was gathered that a woman, who preferred to remain anonymous, had reported at the
Aguda Divisional Headquarters in Surulere that an unknown person has since July 2016, been recharging his phone call credit from her bank account at one of the new generation banks in the country.
The victim was said to have complained about the frequency of recharge and amount of money the suspect was withdrawing from her bank account after purchasing a credit “top up” which is debited from her account.
Explaining when she started noticing the deductions, she said that the fraudulent practice began on the 4th of July 2016, after she received a debit alert from her bank that she had recharged a sum of N1,000 call credit for her phone line without sending such command or initiating such transaction.
“I was amazed when my financial institution notified me of a debit on my bank account and the same thing continued for about 11 months,” she reiterated.
After the woman had filed the case at the Aguda Divisional Headquarters, Aguda Surulere, the case was transferred to RRS for in depth investigation.
Luck however ran out of the suspect as he was arrested and questioned on his involvement in the crime by the decoy team of the RRS.
National Daily learnt that he has confessed to the crime.
Oyeneye said he started the fraudulent practice in July 2016, while trying to make ends meet.
“I started this after the truck I was driving was retrieved from me by the owner due to a misunderstanding. With nothing to live on and maintain my family, I had to look for a means of livelihood and in the process after trying to recharge my phone line with a short code, I was credited N1,000 immediately.
“I tried it the following day and I issued a N3,000 balance which was also credited and so I continue day in, day out, for weeks and months.
“I became so overwhelmed by the value of my call credit balance and I immediately resorted to selling from my loot to people around me for months before I was blocked off.
Oyeneye reiterated, “the maximum I can recharge from the account is N3,000 per day because my network provider restrict me to a daily top up of the said amount.
“I then sell from the proceed and collect back physical cash from my customers,” the suspect added.
The suspect, a patron of a popular Pentecostal church branch around Otta Area of Ogun State confessed to have been sharing his loot with his wife and calling his mistresses as a big man with so much call credit.
When told the amount he had recharged within 11months of his escapade, Oyeneye said he knew he would have recharged up to the said amount (N400,000) because he never gave too much break as he finds it profitable using the illegal platform to enrich himself and be on top up his mobile phone call usage.
Confirming the arrest, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Olarinde Famous Cole, adviced members of the public to seek professional advice from their financial institution before connecting their bank account to any online transaction and implore them to report immediately any case of strange transaction in their bank account to the necessary authorities.