Zulaiha Danjuma

Hara, a healthcare worker in Kano, fell victim to a sophisticated scam on TikTok. 

KANO FOCUS reports that, a scammer, posing as a married woman based in the US, with Saudi Arabian heritage, gained Hara’s trust.

“I was so excited when she sent me a message,” Hara recalled. “She seemed so kind and genuine, and we started talking about our shared interests. I didn’t think twice about trusting her.”

The scammer sent Hara a photo of a laptop, claiming she would send it to her, along with £9,000. Hara was convinced and sent N75,000 to a microfinance bank account to cover supposed shipping costs.

“I felt like I had won the lottery,” Hara said. “I couldn’t wait to receive the laptop and the money.”

However, when Hara realized she had been scammed, she felt devastated.

“I couldn’t sleep for days, thinking about how I had been so foolish,” she said. “I felt ashamed and anxious, wondering how I would pay my bills or provide for my family.”

This scamming technique is known as “Advanced Fee Fraud,” a situation where scammers request money from their victims before an item or goods is delivered to them or service rendered to them.

The prevalence of advanced fee fraud in Kano is alarming, with many cases going unreported.

Notable cases of advanced fee fraud scammers in Kano include Musa Lurwanu-Maje and Aliyu Hussaini.

Musa Lurwanu-Maje’s modus operandi involved creating fake personas on Facebook and WhatsApp, stealing pictures from random social media users and claiming them as his own.

By using these fake profiles, he deceived unsuspecting individuals, ultimately defrauding them.

Another notable example is the case of Aliyu Hussaini, who posed as a textile seller on Facebook.

He deceived a woman who ordered 14 textiles worth N100,000. Instead of delivering the ordered items, Hussaini sent her rags, defrauding her of her money.

In 2023, the Economic Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned a couple for a N410 million advanced fee fraud in Kano state. This high-profile case highlights the growing concern of advanced fee fraud in the region.

How the Police Force is fighting cyber fraud?

The Kano State Police Command has made numerous arrests of such social media related advanced fee fraud cases but wants to take its fight a notch higher.It is leveraging the federal police force’s digital platform that helps to report such crimes for swift action.

The Nigerian Police Force has a dedicated website specifically for reporting fraud and cybercrime.

The website offers users the ability to report online or social media fraud to the police force from the comfort of their phones and electronic devices.

The website is www.specialfraudunit.org.ng is managed by the NPF under its Special Fraud Unit and offers an essential information database for the police to combat cybercrime.

Various security agencies across Nigeria leverage on the information provided by this dedicated website to track perpetrators and support victims.

The Kano State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Abdullahi Haruna Kiyawa said the outfit is happy with the support it is getting from the said digital portal.

SP Abdullahi Haruna Kiyawa

He said in combating social media advanced fee fraud the police Anti-cyber crime and the anti-money laundering units at the Kano State Bompai Police Headquarters are working closely.

“These offices are enabled with modern equipments for policing activities to combat various issues of cybercrimes” he said

SP Kiyawa said aside intelligence gathering and sharing the officers of the Kano State Command Anti-cyber crime units are constantly receiving specialized training, especially in checkmating and investigating social media and internet related fraud.

“We have constant training at divisional levels, command level as well as in the commands department of criminal investigations. We also have an upcoming training on Artificial intelligence (AI) for officers in order for them to understand the emerging technologies and how to best navigate financial internet fraudsters and their schemes” he explained

The Kano State Police Public Relations Officer added that the command has dedicated hotlines where the public can call in to report social media fraud.

“We leverage social media a lot, we also have engagements with social media influencers who assist the command to trickle down the message for the need of online safety, detection of misinformation, disinformation, Mal information and fake news that can all possibly lead to fraud”

These efforts have yielded a number of public outcry about fraudulent individuals on their social media interactions that resulted in several arrests by the Kano State Police Command.

The Role of digital verification systems

A Financial Crimes and Data science expert, Dr. Umar Yakubu explained further that incorporating biometrics and the use of blockchain on emerging technologies will minimize the occurrence of financial crimes.

Dr. Umar Yakubu

“Biometrics is a great tool that aids security, with the world now moving away from biometric fingerprints to facial and iris biometrics, these are some of the great tools that can be adopted to enhance data security and identity verification.”

“Blockchains are also great tools as they help to enhance transparency thereby tracking transactions and verifying identities too.”

If only Hara had been aware that the photo on the TikTok account, supposedly belonging to a US-based Saudi Arabian woman, was actually a stolen image used by a scammer, she might have avoided the devastating experience of being defrauded.

Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) has become a crucial tool in combating financial fraud. Its reliable identity verification and transaction monitoring capabilities provide a secure foundation for online interactions, ensuring a safe and trustworthy environment for individuals to engage in financial and social activities.

Engaging social media companies in the fight

According to Dr. Umar Yakubu, social media companies must do more to help fight social media fraud.

“Social media platforms say if someone is below 16 or 18 they can’t sign into their platforms, but in reality, even 10-year-old children are able to open accounts,” Dr. Yakubu said. “This happens because these platforms do not demand proper identification.”

The ability to set up social media accounts without using personal pictures or a real name are among the issues which drive advanced fee fraud on social media, Dr. Yakubu explained.

“Social media offers people the ability to be anonymous, whereby they are able to generate other people’s pictures, use fake names or other people’s names to create fake accounts while posing as those individuals they don’t even know, which makes social media a hotspot for fraudsters.”

To mitigate these issues, Dr. Yakubu explains that the current structure, which is to simply fine social media platforms in cases where their platforms were used for financial fraud, is not enough.

“The penalties these platforms pay are nothing compared to the amount of money they make, so at the end of the day, the penalties are not deterrents enough for them to ensure that people do not have social media accounts until we put up the right and correct identity,” Dr. Yakubu said.

This story is produced under the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) Fellowship of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) and Co-Develop in partnership with Kano Focus online Newspaper.