•The suspects
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has called its first witness in the case of alleged cybercrime against some 193 foreign nationals and 599 Nigerians arrested in a surprise operation at their hideout, Big Leaf Building in Lagos.
At the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos yesterday, the EFCC presented 7 of the foreigners before Justice Deinde Dipeolu, one for arraignment and 6 for commencement of trial.
All 6, however, opted for a plea bargain arrangement with the anti graft agency. Through their lawyers, the defendants asked the court to grant a short adjournment to enable them open discussions with the EFFC.
Trial, however, commenced against one Xiao Hong Will who is facing a 3 count charge alongside their company, Genting International Ltd.
The court listened to the testimony of an unemployed cyber security student, Roland Turaki, who identified the defendant as one of his employers and narrated how the employees were made to source for European victims online.
Led in evidence by EFCC prosecutor, Bilikisu Buhari Bala, the witness said he met the defendant at a company where he used to work.
“In the office building, I see him with a tag that shows he’s one of the employers though I don’t know him personally”.
Turaki also narrated to the court how he came to work at Genting international company Ltd.
He said, “Sometime mid-Nov., I was on Gigi.ng, it’s a website where you can find laptop to buy and I wanted to buy a laptop for school and I saw an ad that said there was a job opening for a customer service representative at a company and the pay was 250k. So, I decided to check out the ad and clicked on it and I was directed to a page with a WhatsApp number and it said that I should send a message to the WhatsApp no which I did and I was added to a WhatsApp group”.
“On the group, we were given a time and date for interview and on the day, I went to the venue, 7, Oyin Jolayemi St, Victoria Island, Lagos.”
“I was expecting to be given questions or maybe tested for my computer proficiency skills, but I was only tested for my typing skills. The test was to beat a 30 word mark per minute and if you beat that mark, you were hired, which I did”.
I was told that I would be resuming the next day which was very weird and I was also told about the rules and regulations of the company, the salary structure, the accommodation and transportation arrangement they had for employees”.
“I left there that day and went back home to pack my bags and came back to No 7, Oyin Jolayemi to resume work next day.
“On getting there, I was given a script and some information to go through as guidelines for my upcoming role. I was made to understand that I had to memorise and study the material that was given to me.
“For the next 3 days I was made to study and learn how to talk to clients using the script and format on the instruction sheet given. It was a chat template, which contained a set of instructions, a guide chat between a worker of Genting Int. Ltd and a client.
“The chat was basically the worker befriending the client, getting to know the client and gaining the trust of the client. It was like a roadmap telling possibilities of where the chat could go and how to respond.
“Basically I’m to present myself as a woman already employed to talk to this client and gain their trust. My employers made it very very clear that I was to follow the template and not go outside it.
“After the three days of training, my employers provided me with a desktop and we were given numbers to contact, posing as a woman. Our job was to chat with these customers using their template and we were given 5 days to gain their trust.
“I started chatting with multiple people mostly men from European countries”.
“I didn’t spend a lot of time at that job because I resumed Nov. 17th and EFCC arrested us Dec. 10th and I was there for just 2-3 weeks.
“I did not give my employers the amount of clients they were looking for and I was pressured for it. We were given deadlines and they also issued threats of sack without pay. They gave us fines and the environment was pressured.
“Because of this and because I realised that something was wrong with the operations of the company, I had decided to quit. When I told my superiors that I wanted to resign from the job, the day after that, a memo was passed that if you wanted to leave, you had to give 15 days notice if not you would leave without them paying a single dime”.
“The employers provided us with a model whose job was to provide us with pictures, videos and do video calls where necessary with clients, so that it looked real and to gain their trust.
“The name of the model I was assigned was Amity Smith. What Amity Smith was to do was to chat with the client, become their friend, get them to feel comfortable with her and gain their trust.
“And when the employers noticed that the chat is going well, they give us instructions to stop chatting and they take over.
“We have team leaders and they send messages to stop chatting because all our chats and activities are monitored by our supervisors, the Chinese, and when they takeover that client, we move on to the next client and start chatting with someone else.
“I was paid for the services. They asked for our account numbers and they transferred our salaries to us”.
When asked why he didn’t leave after realising the nature of the job, the witness said, “We had police presence at both the work and accommodation premises.
“Based on the pressure from the employers, I did not think it wise to leave like that and I had worked for them so I did not want to leave without collecting what I was owed.
“On a particular day, we wanted to step outside the company gate to buy something, I wanted to get medication at the pharmacy because I wasn’t feeling too well and they asked the armed security men to forcefully drive us back.
“We the workers were Nigerian youth mostly between age 20 & 30. The oldest person would be in her early thirties. They made threats that if anything like this happened again, we would be fired without pay.
“All of this contributed to my decision to resign from the company but before that could become a reality, the EFCC arrested us.
The EFCC has indicated its intention to tender the desktop assigned to the witness and the formats he was studying.
Buhari said, “My lord, we will take a short adjournment to sort this out. The desktops are over 300-400 so we need him to identify which one he worked on”.
Justice Dipeolu has adjourned to March 18 for continuation of trial.
