Airtel's Staff Steals N2.2m With Subscriber's Phone Number

Airtel's customer service representative, Jeremiah Mustapha, conspired with a fraudster, Nurudeen Salimu, to fraud one of Airtel Nigeria's subscribers of N2.2 million through the use of his phone number. Mustapha diverted messages, alerts and calls of the Airtel subscriber to the fraudster, to enable him impersonate the subscriber at the bank, and also disconnected the line from the network to hide their activities.

Salimu was said to have gone to the bank to act as the owner of the account in order for him to access and withdraw the N2.2 million. The actual owner of the account was identified as Kazeem Dele. His signature was forged to withdraw the money from Skye Bank. They committed the crime on October 10, 2016, in Lagos.

According to Sgt. Cyriacus Osuji, Mustapha used his position at Airtel Nigeria to aid the fraud, this led to a nine-count charge base on conspiracy, stealing, fraud and diverting messages from one phone number to another, an act that is against Sections 287, 333(1), 340, 334, 365(1), 337, 380, 411and 415 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

“The number swap aided the second defendant to steal the sum of N2.2 million from the Skye Bank account of the complainant." Osuji said, adding that, "The second defendant forged the signature of the complainant, falsely represented himself as the owner of the account and withdrew the said sum from the account,” Osuji said.

Only Mustapha Will Face Jail Term

The case on conspiracy to commit fraud was initiated on June 14, 2017, and during the ruling of Magistrate Mrs A. G. Omoyele at the Igbosere Magistrates’ Court, Mustapha - who was initially released on bail with his conspirator, Salimu - was found guilty of five counts out of the nine-count charge brought against him by the Police.

He was sentenced to five years imprisonment - one year per each count - without an option of fine, while the imprisonment will take effect immediately and run concurrently. Meanwhile, Salimu's trail was stopped after he became mentally incapacitated. Other individuals who conspired with them are still at large.

Large Subscribers At Risk In Africa's Largest Telecom Market

The fraud perpetrated by Mustapha, Salimu and the other conspirators shows the risk level of subscribers of network providers in Nigeria. Currently, MTN Nigeria, Airtel Nigeria, Globacom and 9mobile are the major network providers operating in Nigeria. Between these companies, the industry has over 190 million active subscribers for telephony services and 138.3 million active data users, making it the largest in Africa.

As the number of smartphone users grows in the country - which is roughly between 25 and 40 million according to Statista - so does the number of subscribers at risk grow when the subscribers of each telecoms companies are weighed; MTN Nigeria has the largest subscriber base with 74.6.9 million subscribers, Globacom has 51.8 million subscribers, Airtel Nigeria has 51.2 million subscribers and 9mobile accounts for 12.5 million subscribers.