Why Scammers Hacked Our Internet Site, Stole Ad-hoc Staff Profiles, N10M – JAMB

BY TEMI OHAKWE, ABUJA – The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), has said that the over a dozen fraudsters that gained access into its intranet site, did so to alter profiles of the Board’s ad-hoc staff as well as diverted over N10 million meant for their allowances.

The Registrar of JAMB, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, who announced this in Abuja, said the board uncovered the fraud following a careful investigation which led to the arrest of one Sahabi Zubairu from Takum in Taraba State and others.

Oloyede said government policy requires that monies meant for ad-hoc staff are paid directly into the accounts of the beneficiaries, a situation that gave room for the challenge the board was facing.

He decried the failure of the Account Department to detect the fraud by cross checking the names on the accounts to ensure that they tallied with those listed on the website or owners of the codes.

The JAMB boss, however said that the ad-hoc staff of the Board have since been paid, adding that the stolen money will be recovered just as he vowed to handover perpetrators of the crime to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), for further investigation and prosecution.

Commenting on how the fraudsters gained access to the profiles of the ad-hoc staff, Oloyede explained that the fraudsters used key logger, a software that allows access to the profile of anyone who has logged in using a public cybercafé even after the person has logged out and gone.

He said that the site was not for application to become JAMB ad-hoc staff, but for JAMB ad-hoc staff to supply their account details and names for payment of their allowances.

The JAMB Registrar said the arrested Zubairu deleted the names of the original ad-hoc staff and their telephone numbers and substituted them with his, adding that those affected include code number 313 and 312, among others.

Ten of the scammers paraded by JAMB before Journalists on Tuesday, in Bwari, Abuja, admitted to the crime and said they were lured into it by Zubairu.

The alleged fraud syndicate ploughed into the site hosting the data of all JAMB ad-hoc staff and changed their account details and phone numbers, diverting several millions meant for the payment of their allowances.

While narrating how he carried out the crime, the alleged kingpin, Zubairu, said a friend of his, known as Samuel Tanko, who is now at large, introduced him to the website and supplied him with a code to apply as a JAMB ad-hoc staff when they met at Saltee Cybercafé in Takum where he resides.

He however said that what he did was not an application but a successful alteration of the account details and phone numbers of the original owners of the code listed on the site, who were posted across the country by JAMB.

It was gathered that some victims of the fraud include a staff of the National Universities Commission, NUC, Mr Babangida Mohammed and one Fatima Mohammed, among several others.

Zubairu confessed that he lured at least 12 people into the crime, some of whom are his family members, adding that he received over N400,000 diverted into his account.

One of the alleged culprits, Nasiru Mohammed, said he received the sum of N220,000 payment from JAMB while others said they got between 286,000 to N440,000.

Both culprits pleaded for leniency and pledged never to indulge in such unwholesome acts again.

Meanwhile, Prof Oloyede has warned Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, candidates not to give their phones to anyone as they could steal their information and divert their codes, messages and calls.

Oloyede gave the warning against the backdrop of what happened to a 400 level Economics student of the University of Abuja, Adegoke Justina, who had her code changed by a cybercafé operator and diverted all her communication with JAMB.

Narrating her ordeal, Adegoke said she went to a cyber café to open an email in order to complete her regularisation with JAMB but the café operator, identified as one David Ahmed, a mass communication student of Auchi Polytechnic, now at large, hacked into her email, changed the password and diverted her code so that any message sent to her by JAMB was received by him.

She further said that anytime she wanted to get in contact with JAMB, the operator will know, adding that he started demanding monies from her but she refused to pay and the café operator threatened to deal with her until she decided to visit JAMB headquarters herself to sort out the issue.

Reacting to the development, Oloyede noted that some of the candidates were digital illiterates and cybercafé operators were taking advantage of it to defraud them.

The JAMB boss said the Board has carried out strategic changes to ensure that email address is no longer a requirement for registration to save candidates from the trap of fraudulent café operators.