Authorities in Philippines have arrested four Nigerians in the city of Muntinlupa for allegedly belonging to a syndicate involved in hacking and siphoning funds from banks.
According to the Filipino National Bureau of Investigation the Nigerians hacked the computer systems of a bank in the Philippines and transferred P100 million from the bank vault into a private account.
The investigations bureau also accused the four Nigerians of violations of the Access Device Law, the Anti-Cybercrime law and falsification of documents.
Issuing a statement to a local Filipino television station ABS CBN, the authorities said,
“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.”
The Nigerians however denied the charges and told the TV Station that they were in the country to further their education and know nothing about the hacking incident being claimed by the Filipinos.
They alleged that most of the funds withdrawn from the said account were donations from the Nigerian Student Community to help them pay tuition.
