The Nigerian police have reportedly arrested a Nigerian man identified as Babatunde Olaogun, 33, for defrauding clients with fake bank alerts.
The Nigerian man who was paraded on Wednesday by the Lagos State Police Command was according to report arrested by operatives of the Rapid Response Squad, RRS, weeks after he had earlier been arraigned for impersonating the Lagos state governor to defraud car dealers of three vehicles.
Olaogun was accussed of having produced fake bank statements which he used to collect loan running into a million from lenders.
The Police further revealed that the suspect defrauded his last victim of 25 cartons of HP computers estimated to be worth about N4.5 million using fake bank alerts adding that he promised the company that he would remit the sum of N2.5 million within 14 days of the purchase.
Following the purchase, he was reported to have presented a fake bank alert indicating he had made the payment which the supplier was mot credited with.
Olaogun while confessing to his crime said: “When I bought the laptops I sold to someone else but the person did not pay me on time. When I could not pay the supplier as agreed and he was pressurising me, I decided to send the fake bank alert to him so as to have peace.”
He added: “I copied several alerts already sent to me by my bank. Then, I edited and retyped it as sms. That was what I showed the supplier. I didn’t send it to his phone.
“After waiting endlessly for the person I resold the twenty five laptops, coupled with the pressure of the supplier.
“Immediately after sending the bank alerts to my phone, I went to his shop to show him the alert so as to give him the assurance that actually the money was sent to him. When I sent the alert to him I wasn’t entertaining any fear.”
Olaogun further revealed that he facilitated the supply of two vehicles to the office of the governor because of his relationship with the car dealer although the cars were intercepted before it was delivered to Alausa.
“Initially I was not afraid, but now I regret my action, because I don’t intend to defraud my friend that supplied the laptops to me.”
Speaking on the arrest, the Police Commissioner, Fatai Owoseni said: “The suspect would go into shops and buy good worth millions of naira and instead of paying, he would send fake bank alert to the person that supplied him the goods on credit.
“When the person went to the bank to collect the money, it was there the person discovered that what they sent to him was fake bank alert. He also generated fake bank statement to deceive suppliers of five million naira and a Toyota Corolla was recovered from him. He would be charged to court.”