The police have arrested two suspected fraudsters, Saidu Usman and Yusuf Umar, for stealing over N400 million using Moniepoint profiles.

Police spokesperson Olumuyiwa Adejobi said in a statement on Thursday that the suspects created and distributed compromised Moniepoint financial accounts to fraudulently withdraw over N400 million.

“The suspects created Moniepoint Microfinance Bank profiles using pre-registered SIM cards and email addresses and then distributed to local accomplices across different states for KYC verification, fraudulently obtaining Bank Verification Numbers (BVNs) and KYC details from individuals,” Mr Adejobi said.

He added, “Upon completion of the KYC process, the suspects would change the passwords to secure them for their unknown foreign contractor.”

Mr Adejobi noted the suspects were among 82 suspects arrested in January for financial and cyber-related crimes, including internet fraud and romance scams.

He added that the police also arrested 32 suspects over cyber-related crimes through its National Cybercrime Centre (NCCC).

In January, Peoples Gazette reported many Nigerians were robbed of N1.1 billion after hacker Sunday Ozimede broke into the Moniepoint payment system through a dark web operation.

Justin Enang, the prosecutor of the Lagos Police Special Fraud Unit (PSFU), said Mr Ozimede was arraigned in the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court on charges bordering on conspiracy and obtaining N945,728,076 million by false pretence.

Mr Ozimede was accused of planting a bug in Moniepoint’s data system, causing financial loss to the microfinance bank to the tune of N145 million.