The International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol)
says it has uncovered a fraudulent scheme to the tune of €1.5 million run
across three countries, with part of the money headed to Nigeria.
The organisation said the scheme, coordinated across Spain,
Netherlands and United Kingdom, kicked off when German health authorities
ordered face masks to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
The order, which originally targeted masks worth €15
million, was placed in March through two sales companies in in Zurich and
Hamburg, according to Interpol.
The police organisation said the buyers placed an initial
order of €1.5 million with a company liked to Spain, not knowing their
legitimate email addresses had been compromised.
“As consolation, they then referred the buyers to a
‘trusted’ dealer in Ireland. The Irish middleman promised to put them in touch
with a different supplier, this time in the Netherlands.
“Claiming to have a strong commercial relationship with the
company, the man provided assurances that the alleged Dutch company would be
able to supply the 10 million face masks.
“An agreement for an initial delivery of 1.5 million masks
was made, in exchange for an up-front payment of EUR 1.5 million.”
It said the buyers initiated a bank transfer to Ireland and
prepared for delivery but just before the delivery date, they got to know that
“they had been duped.”
The organisation said the buyers were informed that the
funds had not been received and that “an emergency transfer of EUR 880,000
straight to the Dutch supplier was required to secure the merchandise.”
“The Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service
quickly tracked down the EUR 880,000 which had been transferred from the German
company,” it said, adding that “nearly EUR 500,000 of those funds had already
been sent to the United Kingdom, all of which was destined for an account in
Nigeria.”
The money was eventually recalled and frozen after the
European police organisation followed through with key contacts in the banking
sector, with some of the suspects arrested.
Jürgen Stock, Interpol secretary general, was quoted as
saying the suspects had no connections to the medical equipment industry but
were “experienced fraudsters who saw an opportunity with the outbreak of
COVID-19.”
“They adapted their sales pitches to take advantage of
strained supply chains and generate huge profits,” he said.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com