A graduate of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomosho, Oyo State, Babatunde Fatai, who is about to begin the mandatory national youth service programme, said he posed as a genuine lover to defraud foreign women and men whom he met on dating sites.

Fatai, who has been arrested by the Oyo State Police command for various Internet crimes, including hacking into bank accounts of many people in and outside Nigeria, had once been arrested for
robbery and arraigned in court but granted bail.

He was arrested with the sum of N2.4m by men of the command’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad in his Ogbomosho hideout. Also in his possession were: a Honda CRV with number plate KWL 280 CN, a Nissan Altima car with number plate KJA 963 CA, a Ford saloon car with number plate KRD 837 DQ and a Toyota Camry saloon car with number plate LSR 418 DJ.

Fatai said he had been in the Internet fraud business for a long time but could not remember how much he had fraudulently collected from his victims. He said:

''It is not easy to do Internet fraud. It takes painstaking effort. 

At times, I would go to dating sites to woo both men and women. I would make sure they fall in love with me by regularly sending love and romantic messages and even calling them until I deceived them into giving me their account details. 

At times, I would send fake emails to bank customers making it look like it emanated from their banks. Then I would ask them to change their password, PIN or other bank account security details. 

They would be required to input the old and new, but as soon as I get the old password, I would use it to hack into their accounts, transfer the money to the person I’m dating abroad, who would later send it to me through another means,” he explained.