Fraudsters hack Customs website
• Defraud job seekers of about N.5bn
Internet fraudsters have lately compromised the recruitment database of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
It was reliably gathered that some yet-to-be-identified fraudsters created a new website, which they purport to be that of the NCS, with which they duped unsuspecting victims.
The total amount involved in the scam could not be immediately ascertained, but our source conservatively put the amount at about N500 million.
The fraudsters, it was learnt, had cleverly hoisted a website, identified as http://www.nigeriacustomsservice.org/, with which they advertised recruitment of interested and able-bodied Nigerians who wish to make a career with the NCS.
Many jobless university graduates were said to have swallowed the bait, hook, line and sinker, as they reportedly rushed in their thousands at the offer.
The fraudsters had directed applicants to download forms from the website, after which payments were made into a private account.
At the same fake website, the fraudsters equally advertised several vehicles meant to be auctioned by the NCS.
They did this by displaying photographs of over one hundred vehicles which they call “seized contraband vehicles.
In this regard, some Nigerian businesspersons were said to have eagerly made on-line payments to the fraudsters’ account without proper verification.
The victims of the fraud were only dazed when they discovered that nothing was heard from the authorities after several weeks of waiting.
The fraudsters on the other hand were said to have curiously shut down the pseudo-website in an apparent move to hide their identities.
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