Chief Ike Godwin, a fraudster, has hacked into the WhatsApp profile of a US-based Nigerian and used it to defraud many of her contacts.

Speaking with FIJ on the development, Kunmi Martins (not real name), a relative of the US-based Nigerian, said the fraudster took over the victim’s profile on Friday.

“Most times, Nigerians living abroad have ways of bonding with other Nigerians who happen to stay in the same area or locality as them,” Martins said.

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“It was through that kind of platform that my aunt was able to establish contact and make friends with co-workers who happen to be US-based Nigerians as well.

“Recently, one of my aunt’s US-based friends lost a family member, and while burial arrangements were ongoing, a WhatsApp group was created among friends within their circle.

“In the process, my aunt’s number was included in the newly created group.”

Martins told FIJ that the fraudster subsequently obtained her US-based aunt’s number from the newly created group and then phoned her.

“During their phone conversation, the fraudster introduced himself to my aunt as Chief Ike Godwin, adding that he was a family member of the bereaved family,” Martins said.

“To win her trust and further make my aunt believe what he was saying, the fraudster stated the names of her colleague’s family members. After this, he told my aunt he wanted to add her to a Zoom meeting and that she should help forward any code sent to her phone to him.

“The moment she sent him one of the codes she had received, her WhatsApp line got hacked.”

After gaining control of the victim’s WhatsApp profile, the hacker sent requests to all the contacts on her phone asking them to assist him in sending money to a UBA and a First Bank account.

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“As one of my aunt’s phone contacts, the hacker also reached out to me, posing as my aunt and asking me to help him send money to people on his behalf. The excuse he gave was that he had exceeded his transfer limit for the day. He sent the same message to other phone contacts too,” Martins said.

“After fraudulently asking people to send money to the two accounts, he also promised that he would reimburse them the following morning.

“While trying to get me to send him money, he sent me a UBA Bank account and a First Bank account. He was actually asking people to send millions of naira to the two accounts.”

“I HAVE NOT DONE ENOUGH”

Martins said the fraudster’s activity was immediately reported to UBA and in response, the bank promised it would place a restriction on the fraudster’s account.

“The fraudster also sent a First Bank account with the name ‘Otaru Friday’ to my aunt’s phone contacts,” Martins said.

“Any time my aunt took steps in retrieving the profile from the fraudster, he regains control. When contacts, who realised he was a fraudster, reached out to him with pleas to return the profile to the rightful owner, he simply told them ‘I have not done enough’.

“We honestly do not know the amount of contacts he has defrauded through the scheme, but he has been asking for millions of naira from people.

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“When we reached out to the bereaved family to ask them if they knew any Chief Ike Godwin, they said they did not. They also added that some other group members’ WhatsApp numbers had been hacked too.

“This issue has caused my aunt a whole lot of embarrassment, and as we speak, she can now only communicate with people through her Facebook profile.

“The fraudster is still very much using her WhatsApp profile to chat with people.”