Nicholas Gyekye
The Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) has declared three persons wanted for their involvement in a SIM swap fraud and other offences.
Those with information about the whereabouts of the three, Ezekiel Mensah Otoo, Nicholas Gyekye, and Derrick Obeng, aka Chilling, should report them to EOCO, which wants them to provide information about some persons believed to be fraudsters besides other offences.
While the EOCO wants Ezekiel for the alleged offence of stealing and SIM swap fraud, the state of Nicholas’ offence was not provided by EOCO but only urging the public to provide it with information about his whereabouts through a phone number.
Derrick is being sought by EOCO for the offences of stealing, defrauding by false pretence, and money laundering.
Early last year, EOCO received intelligence that there was a syndicate of fraudsters targeting local banks in the country and stealing funds from their customers’ accounts.
The modus operandi of the fraudsters is via a fraudulent swap of the mobile numbers of the customers of the banks. This fraudulent swap causes the customers’ mobile numbers to be inactive as the same numbers are activated on the fraudsters’ SIM cards, enabling them to access and control the customers’ bank accounts and steal funds thereof.
Another modus operandi of the fraudsters is to act as purported bank officials and have customers divulge their phone numbers, passwords, pin codes, and One Time Password (OTP).
After having access to the above, they are able to take over the mobile banking application of the customers. This enables them to fraudulently withdraw funds from the accounts.
In April 2022, EOCO in collaboration with the Ghana Association of Bankers and the Ghana Police Service identified and arrested some of the perpetrators, who were mostly based in Assin Fosu.
Amongst those arrested, two have been convicted at the High Court and are serving their sentence at Nsawam Prison.
EOCO added that others identified to be part of the syndicate are still at large. The names of Derrick Obeng aka Chilling, Nicholas Gyekye aka Payges, Ezekiel Otoo, and Frederick Anzi Quainoo, alias Kakra stand out in the list.
The suspects are believed to have stolen over GH¢2,000,000.00 from the accounts of various customers of the banks.
BY Daniel Bampoe