Fraudsters take over JAMB website, divert ad-hoc staff allowances
Suspected fraudsters recently took over the websites of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and hijacked over N10 million intended to be paid to ad-hoc staff of the JAMB, as allowances.
The allowances were diverted into the accounts of over a dozen fraudsters.
Prof Ishaq Oloyede, registrar of JAMB, said that the fraudsters successfully gained access to the profiles of the ad-hoc staff by using key logger, software that allows access to the profile of anyone who has logged in using a public cybercafé even after the person has logged out and gone.
According to him, the scam was uncovered after the board undertook a careful investigation, leading to the arrest of one Sahabi Zubairu from Takum in Taraba State, and several others.
Oloyede said Zubairu deleted the names of the original ad hoc staff and their telephone numbers and substituted them with his, adding that those affected include code number 313 and 312, among others.
At least ten of the scammers paraded by JAMB before journalists at its headquarters, in Bwari, Abuja, admitted to the crime saying they were lured into it by Zubairu.
The alleged fraud syndicate ploughed into the site hosting the data of all JAMB ad-hoc staff and changed their account details and phone numbers, diverting several million meant for the payment of their allowances.
While narrating how he carried out the crime, the alleged kingpin, Zubairu, said a friend of his, known as Samuel Tanko, who is now at large, introduced him to the website and supplied him with a code to apply as a JAMB ad hoc staff when they met at Saltee Cybercafé in Takum where he resides.
He however noted that what he did was not an application but a successful alteration of the account details and phone numbers of the original owners of the code listed on the site, who were posted across the country by JAMB.
It was gathered that some victims of the fraud include Mr Babangida Mohammed, a staff of the National Universities Commission (NUC), and one Fatima Mohammed, among several others.
Zubairu confessed that he lured a least 12 people into the crime, some of whom are his family members, adding that he received over N400,000 diverted into his account.
One of the alleged culprits, Nasiru Mohammed, said he received the sum of N220,000 payment from JAMB while others said they got between 286,000 to N440,000. Both culprits pleaded for leniency and pledged never to indulge in such unwholesome acts again.
