Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi has raised the alarm that fraudsters hacked his WhatsApp number and defrauded his friends of millions.
Afikuyomi said in a statement on Sunday that the incident occured on Saturday.
Explaining how it happened, the Lagos politician said that after hackers seized control of his WhatsApp number they sent messages to his contacts, soliciting financial help on his behalf.
Although some of the friends called him immediately, others heeded the call for help by transferring various amounts of money to the account numbers provided by the criminal gang.
He said, “Yesterday morning (January 13), some scammers hacked my phone line and temporarily seized control of my WhatsApp messages. They then sent fraudulent messages to some of my contacts requesting that they transfer some money on my behalf.
“Many of my friends quickly called me up on the regular phone while some others spoke with my aides to alert me.
Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi called to bar
Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi congratulates Mustapha on ‘turbaning’ as Turaki of Ilorin
“However, unfortunately, a few others did not suspect that anything was wrong. They innocently complied with the fake request and made transfers of millions of naira to the various account numbers in different banks supplied by the scammers.”
Aware of the danger that lurked ahead, Afikuyomi said he quickly alerted the relevant authourities to track the fraudsters and reveal their identities.
He continued, “I immediately complained to the relevant security and regulatory agencies and I thank the anti-fraud unit of the police for springing into action immediately.
“Their efforts led to identifying some of the account numbers and the details of the respective owners through which the scammers collected various sums of money. The security agents are also already deploying technology to geo-locate the perpetrators. Investigations by relevant agencies are still ongoing.
“Meanwhile, I have suspended the use of my WhatsApp number till the authorities can conclude their investigations and I can now put more security measures in place to protect the line. I can only be reached through regular phone calls on the same number.”
Expressing displeasure with the nation’s banking system, Afikuyomi wondered how it was possible for scammers to open multiple accounts for the sole purpose of defrauding people.
