Gadiel Baah Nyumutei
The Cyber Crime Unit of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police service has apprehended a 38-year-old sales agent of an insurance company for allegedly hacking into e-mail accounts of prominent individuals and sending mails to their financial institutions to transfer money into his personal bank account.
Gadiel Baah Nyumutei, 38, according to the police, hacked into the e-mail accounts of some business men and succeeded in transferring a total of GH¢33,000 and $9,800 into his personal account.
Director in-charge of the Cyber Crime Unit of the CID, Chief Superintendent Herbert Gustav Yankson, said on July 12, 2016, management of the financial institution in Accra arrested Gadiel and handed him over to the police with a complaint that from June 27-28,2016, the relationship officer of the bank received an email purported to have emanated from a customer, requesting her to transfer an amount of GH¢15,000 and $9,500 from his account to another account at a different financial institution.
After the transfers were made, the account holder later reported to the bank that he had not authorized such transfers.
On July 7, 2016, an accountant with a pharmaceutical company, also received an email purported to have come from his Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in Accra, instructing him to deposit an amount of GH¢18,000 into his account.
After the deposit, the accountant called his CEO to confirm payment but the CEO said he did not instruct him to make such transfer.
He quickly reported the matter to the bankers and the police and through intelligence the suspect was arrested at Haatso on July 12, 2016 while he was about to withdraw the money from his bank.
An Accra Circuit Court granted him bail in the sum of GH¢40,000 with two sureties, one to be a civil servant and GH¢10,000 to be justified.
By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey