Nearly 800 suspects arrested in Nigeria’s largest cybercrime raid

Some 792 people, including many foreign nationals, have been arrested in Nigeria as part of a sweeping raid on a crypto ring that has reportedly been involved in a sophisticated fraud operation targeting victims worldwide with false cryptocurrency schemes and romantic scams.

Many of the nearly 800 suspects taken into custody from the site in Victoria Island were foreign nationals, including 148 from China. They are reportedly accused of orchestrating a scam that targeted victims around the world by developing romantic relationships with their marks via social media and then manipulating them into buying fake crypto investments. According to Wilson Uwujaren, spokesman for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency is investigating nearly 800 suspects detained during a massive raid in Lagos on 10 December that followed months of intelligence work and surveillance.

The EFCC spokesman also said the foreigners, mostly Chinese, were recruiting Nigerians there and training them to carry out romance and investment scams targeting victims from Europe and North America. “For us it’s a testament to the fact that we’re unrelenting in our efforts to ensure that financial crimes wherever they exist in the country are checked,” he said, adding that this was the greatest number of arrests the EFCC has ever made during a single raid. Ken Gamble, co-founder of cybercrime investigative firm IFW Global, has pointed to the involvement of Chinese crime groups in these cyber scam operations, describing a broader pattern of expansion into regions like Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. “Chinese organized crime groups bring the technology, infrastructure, and financing, enabling local syndicates to enhance their operations,” Gamble said.