By Ehichioya Steve Odion
The Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC, has raised alarm over the rising criminal engagement in virtual Assets and Investment that has the potential to outpace money laundering, on the continent.
The commission said virtual assets are digital representations of monetary value which operates on block chain and can be traded, exchanged and transferred for payment or investment purposes.
EFCC Boss, Mr. Ola Olukoyede who spoke through the Benin Zonal Director, Mr. Effa Okim during the commemoration of the Africa Anti-Corruption Day in Benin City, said it is important to clearly state that virtual assets are not fundamentally criminal, but when wrongfully or fraudulently deployed.
He further said that findings has showed fraudulent politicians are already perfecting schemes and hiding their loot in crypto currencies to beat the investigative dragonets of anti-corruption agencies, adding that unexplained wealth are being warehoused in wallets and payment for services are being done through this window.
He however opined that virtual assets and investment scam are not hard nuts for the commission to crack. He further said that proactive and broad-based training and intelligence are bringing fraudulent schemes to the fore.
"The EFCC is always at work to engage every stakeholders in its preventive and investigative activities. Virtual assets and investment fraud, like other fraudulent activities are preventable. The escape route is adequate knowledge and understanding of issues involved".
The guest lecturer, Joshua Abiama whose topic centered on, "Understanding Virtual Assets And Investment Fraud" said cryptocurrencies is not illegal, adding that the only problem is that it is been used by fraud stars in laundering money.
He said it is called wallets address where owners of the wallet have private key to your wallets. He further said that in this case you do not really know where the money is going to unlike bank transactions where you can easily identify owners of bank accounts. He said it is like money moving on the air.
He also said cryptocurrencies users identity are protected and it is globally assessable.
He identified some of the scam investment which includes, convincing individuals to put money for questionable investment, romance scam which they engage through love relationship and boiler room scam where offices are fully furnished to attract their victims for fraudulent act.
Abiama however, alerted the public on possible ways to avoid being scammed which include asking questions and do research to know exactly what they are talking about, resist pressure to commit funds quickly and verify investment claims on your own.
Another speaker, Idris Oluremi, said the present economic situation in the country is also contributing why people are easily falling into such scams. He said as inflation is rising on a daily basis more people fall into such traps while trying to engage in any business that could fetch them enough money to meet up with their daily needs.
He said despite all these challenges, the government is making effort to put all the necessary measures to check the situation while they are also raising an awareness to stop people from being victims.
Post a Comment