By Dipo Olowookere
A Nigerian hacker arrested by the Lagos State Police Command, Mr Michael Williams, has disclosed that financial institutions operating in the country have porous online banking system.
Mr Williams, a 28-year-old medical doctor turned hacker, made this disclosure on Monday when he was paraded before the media by the Commissioner of Police, Mr Edgal Imohimi.
He was arrested for purchasing a N28 million Porsche car from a dealer with fake bank alert.
“In Nigeria, you can sit and hack any account but abroad, it is only through the Swiss account because the money is much.
“Nigerian bank don’t have professional hackers to secure them online. They are not secured so I can easily hack into their account.
“When you are online, you can do whatever you want to do. I don’t have an account because you can easily be caught so I just do credit cards. You get old credit card,” the suspect told newsmen yesterday.
Speaking on how he got into hacking banks, Mr Williams said, “I was pushed out of work so I got a visa to travel to Canada. I worked at Tolu Medical Centre and EKO hospital.
“It is just that in Nigeria, when they see you are good at something, they just look for a way to push you out.
“I travelled to Canada to get a job to do or something to do. When I got to Canada, I was living with an Israel guy who had an accommodation there. He taught me all I need to know in hacking. It is about software made easy online. So when you are a hacker, you buy the software online, it is very easy.
“I get money online and not from individuals in Nigeria. It is a free world online. I came back to Nigeria because our banks are not secured. You can easily hack accounts online.
“Creating a credit card, you get old credit card online, create them wait for a day monitor your emails and wait for when transactions are coming in on the Swiss code transaction. I don’t have an idea of how much I have made.
“Anybody making $1 million or $2 million transaction or $1 billion, you can divert it online and then secure your securities and thereafter fund it on your credit card.
“After funding it on your credit card, you can use it to buy any kind of powerful software you want and anything buyable online.
“You monitor celebrities, movie producer and actresses in the USA. John Travolta an actor based in USA he does transfers every week. I hacked into his Swiss code account. Banks in Nigeria are not like banks abroad.”
Speaking on how the suspect, who hails from Delta State, was apprehended, the police chief said, his office received complaints from people about Mr Williams.
According to him, the accused person had visited a car dealer known as Abidogun Adewale to buy a Porsche SUV worth N28 million with a fake bank alert.
“After he had bought the vehicle, he thereafter requested for the seller’s bank account number and made it look like he had paid him via the fake alert to his phone using HTTP tunnel. com.
“The suspect drove the car away unknown to the seller that he had been scammed.
“Adewale had only discovered when he went to the bank to obtain his bank statement weeks after. However, based on his complaint, a manhunt was launched on the fleeing suspect. The command availed detectives of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad all necessary Intelligence asset which led to the arrest of the suspect in Lekki Lagos.
“This suspect was interrogated and he confessed to committing the crime. He also led detectives to Asaba, Delta State where the stolen Porsche car was recovered. He also led detectives to Owerri, Imo State where two Camry Saloon cars he stole in a similar fashion were recovered. The modus operandi of the suspect who has a good mastery of cyber environment is that he creates a credit card, through cyber ghost 12. When the credit card matures, it is then funded through a hacked Swiss account.
“Any transaction anybody is doing through Swiss account the suspect manipulates such and wires the fund to his contrived credit card. This is possible with the aid of cyber ghost 12 HTTP/tunnel.azinytv4/vpn (virtual private network).
“He further stated that through the credit card, one can buy software he needs to work and protect his job so that he cannot be traced. Such software is known as von and word cyber protector for example Dare Devil. It also enables you to do deductions and transactions per dollar from every individual domiciliary account, shutting of CCTV camera on Dare Devil and break the 256 codes on word CCTV.china.north Korea.code, untouchable.tracker.com. This enables him to shut down any working system of his interest on yt. com an Internet sophistication for example YouTube/Facebook to make them unworkable for 67 minutes. Although he is not a computer scientist, he claimed to be a professional hacker.”
Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police said the suspect would be charged to court soon.
Aduragbemi Omiyale