EFCC Terminates 800 E-Mail Accounts

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has terminated over 800 scam e-mail a and busted 18 fraudsters, in a renewed fight against cyber-crime.
Farida Waziri, EFCC chairman disclosed this at the of 35th Annual Convention of Black Mayors on Global Vision for Local Action, tagged: “A paradigm of Connectivity in the African Diaspora,” in Las Vegas, United States.
She noted that a latest anti-cyber crime technology called Project Eagle Claw has the capacity to shut down up to 5,000 fraudulent emails monthly when it is fully deployed. “We expect that Eagle Claw as conceived will be 100 per cent operational within six months. It will take Nigeria out of the top 10 list of countries with the highest incidence of fraudulent emails.”
“The EFCC is fine tuning security modalities with Microsoft and upon full deployment, the capacity to take down fraudulent emails will increase to 5,000 monthly. Further it is projected that advisory mails to be sent to victims and potential victims will be about 230,000 monthly,” she further explained.
The schemes of  scammers in Nigeria and elsewhere range from advance fee fraud, lottery scams, phishing and identify theft, among others.
Waziri informed that before Project Eagle Claw, EFCC’s fightagainst cyber crime revolved around cybercafé raids and investigation of petitions, but that the proactive stance of the new leadership required a radical departure, and Eagle Claw was developed. “When it is fully deployed, it will afford the EFCC the option of either monitoring or shutting down all fraudulent email addresses. The EFCC would also have identified victims and potential victims and advised them that their email has been compromised.”
Top officials of the National Conference of Black Mayors (NCBM), led by Heather Hudson had during a visit to the EFCC chairman in Abuja earlier, invited her to address the annual event as part of efforts to foster greater relationship between the US authorities and the anti-corruption commission.
Cyber crime has over the years adversely affected business relationship between Nigeria and the international community – a situation which has made the country a pariah (if you will) in global trade.
Fraud has greatly limited online business opportunities for Nigerians whose online payments are often rejected, culminating in great losses to the economy.