E-Business
‘Covid-419’ – How Cybercriminals in Nigeria Exploited Schemes to Help People in Need
By Oludayo Tade
The COVID-19 pandemic, with its lockdown and social isolation, has added to the vulnerability of many Nigerians in several ways.
Aside from health risks and disruption to livelihoods, the move from physical to virtual relationships heightened the exposure of people to cybercriminals.
The pandemic has changed the landscape of cybercrime in the country.
The government’s social and welfare interventions, to cushion the impact of the pandemic, presented an opportunity for fraudsters to take advantage of vulnerable people.
These palliative interventions included food distribution, cash transfers and loan repayment relief.
In addition, with social distancing and restrictions on movement, people have been doing more online. This exposed them more to cybercriminals.
I undertook a study to examine how COVID-19-induced interventions in Nigeria had been exploited by criminals. My research explored which government policies had created opportunities for fraud, what fraud strategies were used, and how this victimisation could be prevented.
My data came from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Nigerian Police and the Central Bank of Nigeria. I also received examples of fraud schemes from a professional WhatsApp group and from students of criminology.
I found that lack of clearly defined parameters and beneficiaries of Nigeria’s palliative schemes created loopholes for cybercriminals.
I’ve called their strategies “COVID-419” – a term combining the names of the coronavirus disease and section 419 of the Nigerian Criminal Code Act, which deals with fraud.
It’s important to understand how cybercriminals adapt to changing circumstances and what strategies they use, so that more harm can be prevented.
Context of COVID-419 cybercrimes
The social context of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria helps explain how it presents opportunities to fraudsters.
A large percentage – 65% – of the population works in the informal sector. It contributes about 50% of the country’s gross domestic product.
People working in the informal sector are heavily dependent on human interaction. They also rely heavily on public transport.
Lockdown measures had a devastating impact. As a result citizens appealed for help. In response, government formulated policies on palliatives to be given to the vulnerable. A Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 was also set up to coordinate distribution of the palliatives.
They included:
distribution of 70,000 tonnes of rice to poor and vulnerable households across the country
a three-month repayment moratorium for all Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme loans such as TraderMoni, MarketMoni and FarmerMoni.
a three-month moratorium for all federal government funded loans issued by the Bank of Industry, Bank of Agriculture and the Nigeria Export Import Bank
cash transfers and food rations for internally displaced persons.
But the policy had a weak spot: there was no definition of who was poor and who was vulnerable. President Muhammadu Buhari’s broadcast on 29 March 2020 illustrated this.
For the most vulnerable in our society, I have directed that the conditional cash transfers for the next two months be paid immediately. Our internally displaced persons will also receive two months of food rations in the coming weeks.
Many citizens expected and awaited the palliatives. Some may never have got them despite being in need. It is difficult to know how many people actually did benefit. Figures are not easily available and one report said the palliatives were hijacked and distributed among the ruling party loyalists.
All the payments ordered by the president were part of existing government social investment programmes like N-power, Conditional Cash Transfer and Government Enterprise Empowerment Programme.
They had nothing to do with the “new vulnerable” – those whose livelihoods were threatened by COVID-19. But everyone affected by the lockdown expected to benefit from them. They may have believed they qualified for help, yet they weren’t told exactly who would get what and how. This made some people easier targets for scams.
Fraudulent schemes
All the schemes developed by the fraudsters show similarities with the palliatives that government announced. Cybercriminals also developed schemes using the identities of donors that were listed by the Nigerian government on the website of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.
Relief fund fraud: The original COVID-19 relief fund was set up to give beneficiaries N20,000 (US$49) monthly. Cybercriminals patterned their fraudulent scheme after this. They designed a website where people were asked questions and were promised a payment of N20,000. The scam message had a fake government seal on the upper left corner, to deceive people into thinking it was a genuine message from the federal government.
A prospective victim is congratulated to be eligible for the funds after answering series of questions. The person is required to click a green button beneath the page which has the inscription “SHARE NOW”. The person is advised to only share with seven WhatsApp groups. Then, the person would be asked to send bank details with sensitive information. They subsequently hacked their accounts and cleared the funds there.
Loan fraud: Another scheme appropriated by the cybercriminals was the relief loan disbursement form. On the online form, people were asked to supply their names and account details. This scam was framed to align with the presidential address which announced conditional cash transfers and loans. The form had an imprint of Nigeria’s coat of arms on the left side, and used the national colours to make it look authentic. It followed the same pattern with the relief fund fraud.
Fast food coupon fraud: The president’s announcement that rice and groundnut oil from the Nigerian Customs Service would be released also triggered fraud. These were meant to be distributed to state governments. The states were in turn asked to organise the distribution to vulnerable people. Scammers designed a scheme that appeared to offer a free pizza coupon – an attractive luxury for many people.
A voucher bearing the name of a pizza outlet was shared online and potential victims were asked to fill their financial details in order to claim the free pizza. This exposed them to hackers who cleared their bank accounts after critical information had been supplied.
Data scam: With restrictions on movement, a major means of connecting with people was going online. Nigerians asked telephone companies to offer free data to their customers. Some companies gave their subscribers 10 free text messages daily. Cybercriminals designed a scheme called “free 16GB to kill boredom during this lockdown.” Different websites supposedly belonging to telephone companies were created and people were asked to click on them. Doing so and supplying biodata and bank details enabled the fraudsters to have access to their bank accounts.
Preventing victimisation
Nigerian government agencies distanced themselves from the fraudulent schemes. But the way in which social interventions were implemented provided leeway for fraud victimisation.
To prevent this from happening in the future the Nigerian government must communicate effectively with the public – particularly beneficiaries – about its policies. This will help protect them against possible victimisation.
In addition, Nigeria’s security agencies need be involved. They need to act promptly by taking down websites where deliberate falsehoods and misinformation are published.
Oludayo Tade, Researcher, Communication Consultant, Impact Evaluator, Safeguard Specialist, University of Ibadan
N/B: This article is republished from The Conversation Africa under a Creative Commons license.
A new global survey from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) reveals that 52% of marketing leaders believe generic top-level domains (gTLDs – the three characters or more that come after the dot in a URL) have strong potential for enhancing brand presence online; however, a knowledge gap is preventing many brands from taking advantage of the opportunities that a gTLD can bring.
The research surveyed over 2,000 marketing leaders across eight countries (Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, U.K., and U.S.) with the purpose of creating a picture of the evolving digital marketing landscape and understanding the levels of awareness around gTLDs.
It comes as ICANN prepares to open the next application window for new gTLDs in April 2026 the New gTLD Program: Next Round – the first opportunity in more than a decade for organizations to apply to operate their own gTLD.
Top-level domains are the letters found at the end of an Internet address (with gTLDs including .charity, .menu, .paris and .ceo). Brands can apply to run their own gTLD as a way to indicate the purpose of their organization or to clearly mark a website as being related to their brand.
The research shows that increasing brand awareness and visibility is the top priority for marketing leaders (54%) and that over half believe that gTLDs have strong potential for enhancing brand presence online.
However, the research also shows that almost a third (32%) of marketing leaders surveyed are unfamiliar with gTLDs, which suggests that operating a new gTLD may be a strategic opportunity that many organizations are currently overlooking.
Key findings from the research include:
- After defining a gTLD, 92% of marketing leaders responded that they could see the potential benefits to gTLDs, with enhanced brand differentiation (46%), improved customer trust (45%), better control over online presence (44%), and improved SEO (44%) topping the list.
- 19% of marketing leaders work for organizations that have previously applied for a gTLD.
- Cost concerns (31%), knowledge gaps (27%), and insufficient resources (24%) were identified as the main barriers to application.
- The research revealed notable regional variations, with Nigerian (74%) and Indian (61%) marketing leaders showing the strongest belief in gTLDs’ potential for branding and online presence. In contrast, marketers in China expressed more mixed views, with 50% seeing strong potential but 49% considering gTLDs an unnecessary investment with unclear Return On Investment.
The findings come at a time when marketing leaders are facing significant challenges in standing out from competitors (53%), attracting and engaging the right audience (52%), and keeping pace with digital trends (47%).
A new gTLD can be an innovative tool for commerce and communication. They allow businesses in specific countries, sectors, or niche markets to create an exclusive, descriptive, and memorable label on the Internet.
An entity operating a gTLD can provide its users and customers with an extra measure of confidence in its security and legitimacy online. This can be valuable in today’s environment, where users often don’t know whether they can trust the source on the Internet.
Theresa Swinehart, SVP, Global Domains & Strategy said: “The New gTLD Program: Next Round presents an opportunity for businesses, communities, governments, and others to apply to operate their own secure space online, tailored to fit their organization, community, culture, language, and customer interests.
Now is also the moment for brands to consider applying for a gTLD, and this research tells us there is still a lack of awareness. ICANN can help provide information and raise awareness of the Next Round and the opportunity it presents for global communities, organizations, and businesses, including brands.”
To help address the knowledge gap, ICANN is developing resources to help organizations understand the application process and potential opportunities for gTLDs ahead of the 2026 application window. ICANN also offers the Applicant Support Program (ASP), which provides financial and non-financial assistance to eligible applicants.
Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) experts at the 10th annual Cyber Security Weekend – META 2025 held recently, talked about supply chain attacks and reported that by the end of 2024 a total of 14,000 malicious packages were found in open-source projects, a 48% increase compared to the end of 2023. 42 million versions of open-source packages have been examined by Kaspersky throughout 2024 in search for vulnerabilities.
Open-source is software with source code that anyone can inspect, modify, and enhance. Popular open-source packages include GoMod, Maven, NuGet, npm, PyPI, and others.
These are tools that power countless applications and help developers easily find, install, and manage pre-built code libraries, making it simpler to build software by reusing code others have written. Attackers take advantage of the popularity of these and other packages.
In March 2025, the Lazarus Group was reported to have deployed several malicious npm packages, which were downloaded multiple times before removal. These packages contained malware to steal credentials, cryptocurrency wallet data, and deploy backdoors, targeting developers’ systems across Windows, macOS, and Linux.
The attack leveraged GitHub repositories for added legitimacy, highlighting the group’s sophisticated supply chain tactics. Kaspersky’s GReAT also found other npm packages related to this attack. Malicious npm packages could have been integrated into web development, cryptocurrency platforms, and enterprise software, risking widespread data theft and financial losses.
In 2024, a sophisticated backdoor was discovered in XZ Utils versions 5.6.0 and 5.6.1, a widely used compression library in Linux distributions. Inserted by a trusted contributor, the malicious code targeted SSH servers, enabling remote command execution and threatening countless systems globally.
Detected before widespread exploitation due to performance anomalies, the incident highlighted the dangers of supply chain attacks. XZ Utils is integral to operating systems, cloud servers, and IoT devices, making its compromise a threat to critical infrastructure and enterprise networks.
In 2024, Kaspersky’s GReAT discovered that attackers uploaded malicious Python packages like chatgpt-python and chatgpt-wrapper to PyPI, mimicking legitimate tools for interacting with ChatGPT APIs.
These packages, designed to steal credentials and deploy backdoors, capitalised on the popularity of AI development to trick developers into downloading them. These packages could have been used in AI development, chatbot integrations, and data analytics platforms, endangering sensitive AI workflows and user data.
“Open-source software is the backbone of many modern solutions, but its openness is being weaponised. The 50% rise in malicious packages by the end of 2024 shows attackers are actively embedding sophisticated backdoors and data stealers in popular packages, which millions rely on.
“Without rigorous vetting and real-time monitoring, a single compromised package can trigger a global breach. Organisations need to secure the supply chain before the next XZ Utils-level attack succeeds,” comments Dmitry Galov, Head of Research Center for Russia and CIS at Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team.
Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) has launched an investigation into allegations that the confidentiality and integrity of candidates’ personal data may have been compromised by hackers.
The Commission initiated the inquiry following concerns over possible data breaches during examinations.
Preliminary findings indicate that several examination centres may not have implemented adequate technical and organizational measures to safeguard candidates’ personal information, as required under data protection regulations.
Although the incident reportedly affected 379, 997 candidates, the NDPC’s investigation is poised to cover a systemic audit of data processing and third parties.
It will be recalled that JAMB recently admitted that a technical error on its platform affected a total of 379,997 candidates in 157 examination centres across Lagos and the South-East.
Further investigation led to the arrest of at least 20 suspects who are currently in the custody of the Department of State Services and the Nigerian Police Force.
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