The Police Special Fraud Unit has arrested a suspected member of a cybercrime syndicate accused of using Point of Sale (POS) terminals and other digital tools to infiltrate a financial instit
The Police Special Fraud Unit has arrested a suspected member of a cybercrime syndicate accused of using Point of Sale (POS) terminals and other digital tools to infiltrate a financial institution’s database and orchestrate fraudulent transactions exceeding ₦3 billion.
The arrest, according to Nairametrics, was disclosed by PSFU spokesperson DSP Ovie Ewhubare in a statement issued on Friday in Lagos. He said detectives carried out an extensive investigation into what he described as a sophisticated cyber intrusion targeting a financial institution, which eventually led investigators to one of the alleged members of the network.
Other suspects remain at large, and the Commissioner of Police in charge of the PSFU, Eloho Okpoiakpo, has directed officers to intensify efforts to track them down.
According to the police, the syndicate did not break into a bank vault or physically steal anything. Instead, they allegedly used POS terminals, the same card-swiping machines found in shops, supermarkets, and roadside kiosks across Nigeria, as a technical entry point to gain unauthorised access to a financial institution’s internal database. Once inside, they executed fraudulent transactions running into billions of naira.
“The members of the syndicate allegedly used Point of Sale terminals and other technological tools to gain unauthorised access to the financial institution’s database,” Ewhubare said. “The breach enabled the suspects to initiate fraudulent transactions worth more than N3 billion.”
Read also: Will the IGP’s ban of POS within 200 metres of police stations curb extortion?
Preliminary investigations indicate the alleged proceeds were rapidly moved through multiple bank accounts in what investigators believe was a deliberate attempt to disguise the origin and movement of the funds before they could be traced. Detectives used advanced digital forensic tools and financial intelligence techniques to track the money trail, identify syndicate members, and gather evidence for prosecution.
How technology like POS is becoming the weapon of choice for Nigerian fraudstersThe ₦3 billion POS fraud is not an isolated incident. It is part of a widening pattern in which cybercriminals are using legitimate financial technology infrastructure as a backdoor into banking systems.
POS terminals were designed to make payments faster and more accessible for everyday Nigerians. But their widespread deployment in markets, pharmacies, salons, and on street corners across every major city has also created thousands of potential entry points that bad actors are learning to exploit. The same connectivity that makes a POS terminal useful for a small business owner makes it a potential tool for someone with the technical knowledge and criminal intent to misuse it.
In April, EFCC operatives arrested a Cameroonian over his alleged role in a separate ₦1.5 billion bank fraud in Lagos. A syndicate reportedly obtained customers’ ATM cards and PINs and used them from neighbouring countries to carry out unauthorised withdrawals from accounts with large balances, another example of criminals exploiting payment infrastructure across borders.
The scale of the problem is reflected in the numbers. According to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System, Nigerian banks lost approximately ₦52.26 billion to fraud in 2024 alone, a figure that underscores both the growing sophistication of cybercriminals and the increasing pressure on financial institutions and law enforcement to stay ahead of them.
The Central Bank of Nigeria has responded by issuing public warnings to Nigerians about fraudulent messages, phishing links, and social engineering schemes designed to steal banking credentials. But warnings alone are not enough when the fraud is happening at the infrastructure level, inside the systems that process transactions, rather than through individual customers being deceived.
For law enforcement, cases like this one signal that financial crime investigations now require as much technical expertise as traditional detective work. The PSFU’s use of digital forensic tools and financial intelligence to trace the movement of ₦3 billion across multiple accounts shows that the response is adapting, but the arrests also confirm that the threat is evolving just as fast.
Also read: SIM Swap and its loopholes: How fraudsters steal your phone number and drain your savings
