How Social Media Influences Fraudsters To Acquire Properties Worth Millions – EFCC

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has revealed ways in which youths venture into fraud to acquire properties worth millions of naira.

The Commission revealed this through one of its officers, Chief Superintendent of the EFCC (CSE) Jimmy Tanko, during EFCC Connect on Wednesday.

According to EFCC, some youths have been purchasing properties in millions of naira using their parents or relatives’ names, without necessarily being questioned by their parents on the sources of these wealth.

Tanko explained that the superficial and materialistic nature of our society displayed on social media, coupled with peer pressures, are the major thrives making youths commit fraud to acquire wealth.

He said: “It is known that everybody wants to be seen as a top achiever, and how to be a top achiever you need to have so much money, then you can claim to be ‘successful’.

“Being successful has been reduced not to achievement, not to personal achievement, or what you offer to the society, but it is now more based on how much money you have accumulated.

“And these are some of the things that urge some of these young people to waste most of their time on social media. Social media is one of the greatest influences of this particular shred among young people.”

The EFCC official highlighted that on social media, youths see so many materialistic things they imagine to possess, like expensive houses, cars among others.

He said such things seen on social media makes them imagine being in those positions occupied by others or living in those expensive houses, “and at the end they jump on the bandwagon and begin to crack some of these fraudulent acts.”

CSE Tanko said after the fraudsters have finished acquiring money fraudulently to obtain such luxuries, they begin to cleanse the process they acquired the money from and make it look like they worked for it.

“They go and open boutiques instead of buying these houses you’re talking about. They buy properties in the name of an uncle, aunt or someone whom they’ve given a little bit of that dirty money to and say, ‘this is your cut’, and the person allows his or her name and title to be used in acquiring that property.

“It might be cars, houses. It might be all forms of luxurious possessions,” the EFCC official said.

He however noted that the girlfriends of most of these fraudsters are the ones enjoying such illegal wealth.

He said: “Their girlfriends are actually the ones they buy these things for and not members of their families.

“Meanwhile, there are very few parents and relatives that get approached by these young fraudsters who will question the source of such wealth and turn it down.”

The officer condemned such parents or adults who agree to launder money for such fraudsters without asking for the source of such wealth. “It’s very wrong,” he noted.

Tanko also spoke on youths who are into content creation on social media, who promote “vulgarity and moral decadence” in the society, as some of the factors mitigating youths to venture into financial crimes.

He further highlighted that some clergymen who challenge parents about the positions of their children, are also contributing factors to financial crimes, especially when they emphasise the need for tithes or zakat.

“All these pressures, people want to meet up to, and it pushes them into fraud. And when they get the money, they cover it by buying properties instead of going about with it in their bank accounts.

“So our major problem is when parents or relatives allow them to use their accounts to hide some of this money,” Tanko said.