Nigeria shuts down 800 scam websites

The Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has shut down no fewer than 800 scam websites and arrested members of 18 syndicates behind the fraudulent scheme in a renewed bid to clap down on internet fraudsters through an initiative tagged “Project Eagle Claw”.

According to the chairman of the anti-graft agency, Farida Waziri, “We expect that Eagle Claw as conceived will be 100% operational within six months and at full capacity, it will take Nigeria out of the top 10 list of countries with the highest incidence of fraudulent e-mails.”

At the moment, Eagle Claw has delivered significant results. Over 800 fraudulent e-mail addresses have been identified and shut down. The EFCC is fine tuning security modalities with Microsoft and upon full deployment, the capacity to take down fraudulent e-mails will increase to 5,000 monthly. Further it is projected that advisory mails to be sent to victims and potential victims will be about 230,000 monthly.

While justifying her decision to adopt the latest strategy against cyber crime, Waziri said “Project Eagle Claw is an initiative of the EFCC for the smart use of technology in fighting cyber crime.”

The proactive stance of the new leadership required a radical departure and Eagle Claw was developed. When it is fully deployed, it will afford the EFCC the option of either monitoring or shutting down all fraudulent email addresses. The EFCC would also have identified victims and potential victims and advised them that their email has been compromised.