Four Nigerians in Muntinlupa City, Philippine have been arrested for alleged involvement in an international syndicate that hacks and siphons funds from banks.
However, the Nigerians denied the allegations.
The National Bureau of Investigation made this known in a statement on Tuesday, ABS CBN News reports.
The statement was signed by NBI’s Cybercrime Division chief, Vic Lorenzo.
The investigative bureau claimed that “the fraudsters’ – Nigerians – transactions were traced when they hacked a system of one Philippine bank, where at least P100 million were transferred and funneled into a different account”.
It alleged that the Nigerians violated the Access Device Law, Anti-Cybercrime law, and falsification of public documents.
But the NBI in the statement failed to name the arrested Nigerians.
The statement read, “The international syndicate is complicated.. to the point that they study the system’s flaws. Once they see a weakness, they will take advantage of that.
“One of the suspects’ Filipina girlfriend admitted to having used her account to deposit and withdraw money amounting to at least P2 million, which was supposedly for tuition.
“Blank ATM cards and bank receipts were confiscated from the suspects.”
While denying the allegation, the Nigerians told ABS CBN that they were in the country to study, and they “know nothing about the hacking incident”.
“The funds withdrawn were donations from a Nigerian student community,” one of them said.