Over a dozen fraudsters have gained access to an intranet site belonging to the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, and altered profiles of the board’s ad hoc staff, diverting over N10 million meant for their allowances.
Ishaq Oloyede, the JAMB registrar, while parading the suspects, Sahabi Zubairu from Taraba State and several others on Wednesday said the board uncovered the fraud after a careful investigation.
He said JAMB’s government policy requires that monies meant for ad hoc staff are paid directly into the accounts of the beneficiaries, a situation that gave room for the hackers to gain access to the website.
He decried the failure of the accounts department to detect the fraud by cross-checking the names on the accounts to ensure that they were the same as those listed on the website.
The JAMB boss noted that ad hoc staff of the board have since been paid, assuring that the stolen money will be recovered.
“Preliminary Investigations showed that the fraudsters used key logger, a software that allows access to the profile of anyone who has logged in using a public cybercafé even after the person has logged out and gone.
“The site was not for application to become JAMB ad hoc staff, but for JAMB ad hoc staff to supply their account details and names for payment of their allowances.
“The suspect, Zubairu deleted the names of the original ad hoc staff and their telephone numbers and substituted them with his, which affected code number 313 and 312, among others.
“At least ten of the scammers admitted to the crime adding that they were lured into it by Zubairu.
“Also, some of the victims of the fraud include a staff of the National Universities Commission, NUC, Babangida Mohammed, and one Fatima Mohammed, among several others.
“We will do everything in our capacity to ensure that they are handed over to the to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for further investigation and prosecution,” he said.
Meanwhile, the alleged kingpin, Zubairu, told journalists that a friend of his, known as Samuel Tanko, who is now at large, introduced him to the website and supplied him with a code to apply as a JAMB ad hoc staff.
He, however, noted that what he did was to alter account details and phone numbers of the original owners of the code listed on the site, who were posted across the country by JAMB.
Zubairu further revealed that he lured a least 12 people into the crime, some of whom are his family members, adding that he received over N400,000.
One of the alleged culprits, Nasiru Mohammed, also said he received the sum of N220,000 payment from JAMB while others said they got between 286,000 to N440,000.
