The Delta State Police Command claimed on Wednesday that the owners of an Internet fraud academy, where over 100 teenagers were apprehended by Nigerian Army personnel, enticed the suspects with the promise of training them in Bitcoin and FX trading.
In a video posted on his X page on Wednesday, the command’s Public Relations Officer, Bright Edafe, described how the suspects arrived at the institution only to learn that it was a “Hustling Kingdom.”
According to reports, soldiers from the 3rd Battalion Nigerian Army Barracks attacked an estate in the Warri area of the state, arresting over 100 suspected internet fraudsters.
The school was purportedly educating cybercriminals, and the accused were turned over to authorities for further investigation and prosecution.
Meanwhile, Edafe underlined that the military arrested the suspects when one of them called a family member using the laptop provided by the academy operators.
The PPRO also stated that after notifying his family about the trap he was caught in, they alerted the military, resulting in the arrest of 123 suspects, the majority of whom were juveniles.
According to Edafe, the suspects were duped into joining Hustlers HK, a prominent cybercrime training network, after promising to study BTC trading and forex.
He narrated, “We are here at the Ekpan Police Station Effurun Divisional HQ, where we will be parading about 123 suspected Internet fraudsters who were engaged in Internet fraud.”
“Their modus operandi is that they engage their agents who go on social media to flaunt wealth, which most times isn’t even theirs, and convince unsuspecting boys aged 17, 18, 19, and 20 that they want to teach them forex and crypto business.”
“They lure some from Kaduna, Akwa Ibom, and Ibadan to that particular estate and beat the hell out of them, feeding them only when they feel like,” he said.
Edafe said that the suspects were duped by agents who flaunted fictitious wealth on social media, encouraging them to participate in the scam.
The police PRO claimed that the agents would then lure them to the estate, where they would be physically abused and exploited.
Our correspondent’s efforts to determine whether the school’s operators had been arrested were futile, as the police PRO had yet to react to calls and messages left on his line.
