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Bank IT bod accused of stealing $40 MEEELLION from employer

Turns out there may actually be a Nigerian 'prince' out there with cash

If you get an email from a hapless Nigerian prince who needs a hand shifting a few million dollars, the message will no doubt wing its way into your spam folder.

But should you get a plea for help from a Nigerian sysadmin, you may want to take a second look: the Nigerian government's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has issued an alert asking for the detention of Godswill Oyegwa Uyoyou, an IT worker accused of stealing 6.28 billion Naira ($38.6m, £23.7m) by hacking the systems of the bank that employed him.

Uyoyou allegedly worked with an outside criminal gang to get around the bank's internal security controls, and diverted the funds to a number of separate accounts, the EFCC claims. The alleged cyber-heist took place while bank staff were away for the weekend, EFCC spokesman Wilson Uwujaren told The News Nigeria.

“They most likely got through to [Uyoyou] because he’s an IT person in the bank," he claimed. "One Saturday, he took the cyber gang to the bank under the pretext that he was going to carry out some maintenance work, allowing them access to hardware, and they commenced to penetrate the bank’s database.”

The name of the bank apparently raided isn't mentioned; the EFCC simply said it is a "new generation bank." The alleged fraud was uncovered when some of the gang tried to withdraw their funds.

Last month the EFCC collared three miscreants who tried to convince a bank worker to install key-logging malware onto his employer's systems to facilitate a theft. In that case the honest worker informed his bosses, and helped the cops arrest the gang when they met to exchange the malware.

In the case of Uyoyou it is alleged that he could have fallen in with a similar bunch of crooks. The EFCC was now seeking the 38-year-old to help with its inquiries. ®

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