2 Nigerians, 1 Pinay arrested in Laguna phishing scam

Authorities arrested two Nigerian nationals and a Filipina involved in phishing. They allegedly stole P1.4 million from a bank account and attempted to withdraw P400,000 in San Pedro City, Laguna, this Wednesday.

Laguna Police identified the Nigerians as Samuel Nomso Esomchi, 42, and Taye John Bamidele, 40, both residents of Imus, Cavite at present; and the Filipina Gladys Francisco, from Carmona, Cavite.

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Based on the Laguna PNP report, at around 2 in the afternoon, the suspect, Francisco, attempted to withdraw P400,000 at a bank in San Pedro from the account of an Indian businessman.

But when said bank contacted its branch in Carmona for what was supposed to be an inter-branch withdrawal transaction, the Carmona branch was notified of the possibility that this was a fraud or phishing activity.

The withdrawal didn’t go through, and Francisco left quickly.

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The bank immediately called the authorities, who conducted a hot pursuit operation. The woman was arrested in Barangay Nueva in San Pedro City.

Two foreigners were also arrested consecutively at a gas station in San Pedro and at a mall.

They recovered the P1.4 million they withdrew from the said bank’s branch in Carmona and Muntinlupa, Wednesday morning.

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2 Nigerians, 1 Pinay arrested in Laguna phishing scam

The three are already in the custody of the San Pedro police and have also been charged with complaints of violation of computer-related fraud (violation of Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012), and Article 315 (Swindling / Estafa) of the Revised Penal Code in relation to Sec 6 of Republic Act 10175.

In the fraudulent practice known as phishing, the perpetrator sends emails or uses other forms of communication while posing as a respectable organization or individual. Attackers frequently utilize phishing emails as a means of disseminating malicious links or attachments that can carry out a number of purposes.

Phishing scams often use social networking strategies, which are then adapted and deployed to email or other forms of electronic communication. Direct messages transmitted over social networks and SMS text messages are two examples of possible techniques.

Phishers can obtain background information about their victims by using public sources to research the victim’s personal and professional history, interests, and activities. The majority of the time, this is done through social networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. The information obtained from these sources is typically utilized to discover details on possible victims, such as their names, job titles, and email addresses. After gathering all of this information, one might proceed to compose a convincing email.

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