Nigerian Hacker Jailed For 51 Months In The US

A Nigerian hacker identified as Obinna Obioha, has been jailed fr 51 months by a New York federal judge for operating a fraud scheme that swindled $6.5 million from businesses in the U.S. and elsewhere.

According to Vanguard, a U.S. District Judge David N. Hurd sentenced Obinna Obioha, 31, for running a scheme in which he instructed hackers to hack into computers and email accounts of individuals around the world using malicious software. 

“Obioha, working from Nigeria, was a central figure in a fraud scheme using digital disguises and deceit to bilk businesses out of millions of dollars. We will continue to track down and bring to justice cyber criminals like Obioha no matter where they operate. I thank the FBI for its terrific work in this case identifying and apprehending Obioha,” said Jaquith. .

FBI Special Agent in Charge Vadim D. Thomas said: 

“These schemes can rob individuals and businesses of their livelihood. Cyber-crime is a serious threat and the FBI is prepared to go to any lengths to apprehend those like Obioha.” .

Obioha and his gang operate by monitoring victims’ information to identify imminent commercial transactions, they then craete  knockoff email addresses that appeared similar to – but varied slightly from – victims’ legitimate email addresses. .

The gang made use of bogus email accounts to send fraudulent invoices to victims, instructing them to wire funds to bank accounts controlled by Obioha and his associates, under the pretense that the wires were payments for actual deals that had been previously negotiated by the victims. .

Obioha admitted that between January and September 2016, he was involved in at least 50 wire transfers, and that about $6.5m was sent by wire to bank accounts that he and his associates controlled. He was arrested on October 6, 2016, after flying from Lagos, Nigeria, to JFK International Airport.