Police raise alarm over cloned certificates, ATM cards in circulation

The Commissioner of Police, Anti-Fraud Unit, Federal Criminal
Investigation Intelligence Department (FCIID) Ikoyi- Lagos, Mr Dan
Okoro, on Thursday raised alarm over many cloned certificates and
ATM cards in circulation.

Okoro raised the alarm while briefing newsmen in Lagos on the
discovery of some cloned certificates by syndicate, which
specialised in printing fake documents of banks, government and
corporate organisations.

He said that the syndicate had been using the cloned documents
to defraud banks, government, corporate organisations and
individuals, stressing that some bank officials were collaborating
with the suspects for the crime.

Among documents cloned by the syndicate included CBN,
presidential clearance certificates, IMF and court documents.

“I advise members of the public against cloned certificates, ATM
card and other important documents currently in circulation. I want
members of the public to keep their pin numbers, passwords and ATM
safe.

“We have some documents recovered from one suspect arrested. We
are investigating the documents and some bank staffers allegedly
collaborating the syndicate.

“It is only the bankers that have details of every deposit in
the bank. Our investigation revealed that some bankers give
information to the syndicate on how much customers have in every
account.

“The syndicate cloned documents and transferred such money to
another account, particularly, accounts with ATM cards are their
easiest target.

“Many crimes are going on in different banks, unfortunately, the
bank management will not allow the public to know about it because
they want to keep their customers trust,” he said.

Okoro said the unit was able to detect some of the documents
through the assistance of a foreign cyber security firm based in
Lagos using forensic analysis equipment to unravel the identities
of the syndicate members.

He noted that cyber crime was a global challenge, stressing that
the unit was synergising with the foreign firm for capacity
building for officers and men in the unit.

The commissioner said the suspect arrested was currently in the
hospital after he collapsed during search of his house and many
incriminating materials, including hard drugs were discovered.

“The suspect is a web site designer. He designed many of the
cloned documents. We are on the trail of other members of the
syndicate, “Okoro said. (NAN)