₦airaland Forum

hisgrace090:
Nigeria on her knees.

Agaju Madugba, Katsina

The Katsina State government may have traced 20 of its indigenes to Burkina Faso where they were allegedly sold into slavery by armed bandits.

Reports indicate that “modern day slavery” thrives in Burkina Faso, a former French colony located in the Sahel region of West Africa, with human merchandise exchanging hands through various middlemen in parts of northern Nigeria, Benin Republic, Republic of Niger and Chad.

Competent sources hinted at the weekend that identification of the current location of some of the kidnap victims was part of the fall out of recent efforts by Governor Aminu Bello Masari who led a team of government officials and security agencies to the dreaded Rugu forest, on a dialogue mission with a cross section of the bandits and kidnappers.

According to one of the sources, “the victims were kidnapped in Kankara local government area and sold to a woman in Cotonou who in turn sold them to another slave marchant in Burkina Faso.”

Confirming the development, Masari’s Special Adviser on Drugs, Narcotics and Human Trafficking, Hamza Borodo, declined to give further details but said that, “yes, I will be traveling to Burkina Faso this weekend to negotiate their release but I won’t give you details until I return.”

Until the dialogue initiative, eight local government areas of Jibia, Batsari, Safana, Dan-Musa, Kankara, Faskari, Dandume and Sabuwa had become synonymous with banditry and kidnapping, along with the slaughter of residents in a number of communities.

Incidentally, the areas share boundaries with the Rugu forest, said to transverse through parts of the neighbouring Niger Republic, Katsina, Zamfara and Kaduna states.

Mutemenot:
Working as a team gave them the name and beauty. Dis their individual stuff is fvcking boring .

Mutemenot:
Is it not Peter that sang d song ? Doz boys are confusing me by their names sef. N.a. psquare me know �

obailala:
Can you really substantiate this claim (in bold)?

Area4Area:
See you calling someone ode when it seems you are the real one, have you ever heard that any ship was turned away from disembarking in any eastern port and forced to offload in Lagos?

Tolexander:
Wetin do am?

Tell us which other geopolitical zone produces the largest oil, after the South South geopolitical zone

DSHADOWWALKER:
Fifa president is named infantino and not Florentino perez(madrid's president who has no bussiness with fifa),unless you are implying he is campaigning and commanding voters not to vote for him,so get that into your dumb skull

nwajesus12:
for the record, the Xavier year u mentioned of was the same year messi scored 92 goals and over 30 assists... Think about that

Fidelarinze9:
Which side of Abak? I served there too.

The FBI and federal partners today announced scores of arrests in the United States and overseas in a coordinated law enforcement sweep targeting perpetrators of an insidious scam that tricks businesses and individuals into wiring money to criminals.

Operation reWired, a months-long, multi-agency effort to disrupt and dismantle international business email compromise (BEC) schemes, resulted in 281 arrests, including 74 in the United States, officials announced. Arrests were also made in Nigeria, Turkey, Ghana, France, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, and the United Kingdom. The sweep resulted in the seizure of nearly $3.7 million and the disruption and recovery of approximately $118 million in fraudulent wire transfers.

These sophisticated cyber-enabled scams often target employees with access to company finances and—using methods like social engineering and computer intrusions—trick them into making wire transfers to bank accounts thought to belong to trusted partners. The accounts are actually controlled by the criminals.



The operation follows last year’s Operation WireWire, a similar effort that led to total 74 arrests and the seizure of $2.4 million. Thirty-nine of the FBI’s 56 field offices participated in this year’s sweep alongside state and local task force officers and partner agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, Department of State, Department of the Treasury, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

The effects of this crime are far-reaching, and the dollar amounts involved are staggering. Since the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) began formally tracking BEC (and its variant, email account compromise, or EAC) in 2013, it has gathered reports of more than $10 billion in losses from U.S. victims alone. The worldwide tally is more than $26 billion.

“The FBI is working every day to disrupt and dismantle the criminal enterprises that target our businesses and our citizens,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “Through Operation reWired, we’re sending a clear message to the criminals who orchestrate these BEC schemes: We’ll keep coming after you, no matter where you are.”

Criminal organizations that perpetrate BEC schemes don't just target companies. They also exploit individual victims—such as real estate purchasers or the elderly—by convincing them to make wire transfers to bank accounts controlled by the criminals. The scam can also involve requests to purchase gift cards and send the serial numbers or to mail a check, but the request will always appear to come from someone known to or trusted by the victim.

An FBI case that was part of last year’s operation illustrates how the BEC scheme works: Beginning in 2015, two men working remotely from the United Kingdom and Nigeria sent emails to an executive at a Connecticut-based company appearing to be from the company’s CEO, who was also located overseas. The purported CEO was requesting a wire transfer of funds. The email looked legitimate, so the company’s controller sent multiple wire transfers totaling more than $500,000. But as it turns out, the CEO’s email account had been spoofed—and the money went straight into accounts managed by the criminals.

“If you saw the email, it would look very legitimate,” said Special Agent Jennifer Boyer, who worked the case out of the FBI’s New Haven Field Office. She encouraged anyone who is in a position to wire money to pause and question all requests before hitting send.

“Take a moment to consider that maybe it’s not your boss and pick up the phone and verify,” said Boyer. “It’s that second-factor authentication that people really need to implement, and so many people don’t.”

In addition to verifying all financial requests received by email, the IC3 recommends businesses and individuals:

*Use two-factor authentication to verify any change to account information or wire instructions.

*Check the full email address on any message and be alert to hyperlinks that may contain misspellings of the actual domain name.

*Don’t supply login credentials or personal information in response to a text or email.

*Regularly monitor financial accounts.

*Keep all software and systems up to date.

Victims of business email compromise schemes are encouraged to contact law enforcement immediately and file a complaint online with the IC3 at bec.ic3.gov. The IC3 staff reviews complaints, looks for patterns or other indicators of significant criminal activity, and refers investigative packages of complaints to the appropriate law enforcement authorities.

A Texas man wanted out of his marriage and instead of going through divorce proceedings, he faked his wife's signature on paperwork in turn ending their union without her knowledge.

The New York Daily News reports Paul Nixon submitted forged documents and false information to a Houston district court. Nixon also reportedly committed perjury when testifying in court during a divorce hearing. The divorce has been tabled due to the perjury and fraudulent documents.

The constable’s office started the investigation after Mrs. Nixon informed officials of the divorce that occurred without her knowledge.

Harris County Constable Mark Herman spoke with a local news outlet and said that a search for Mr. Nixon is underway as he is now wanted for aggravated perjury.

“We have teams out looking for him right now, I can tell you,” he told the station. “And we have an idea where he’s at. So hopefully, he’ll turn himself in. If not, we’ll catch him. Just a matter of time.”