£1.5m scam gang boss locked up

A man who preyed on hapless students by sending phishing emails to gather their financial data and extract money from their accounts – defrauding them of a total of £393,000 – has been banged up in jail for three years.
Manchester-based Olajide Onikoyi – who is allegedly one of the leaders of a gang which stole nearly £1.5m – sent emails inviting students to update details on their student loan account through a link to a bogus website.
When the site was accessed by the unsuspecting students, Onikoyi was able to gain unauthorised access to their bank accounts and extract large amounts of money.
In total, 238 victims were identified as having been scammed by Onikoyi; one victim lost nearly £19,000.
The Metropolitan Police Service investigated the case, and worked alongside Greater Manchester Police, the Student Loans Company and the banks of those affected by the scam, as well as internet service providers (ISPs) to help trace Onikoyi’s involvement. They also accessed data from the laptops of victims to help trace the emails back to Onikoyi.
On Friday, he was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court to three years in prison for conspiracy to defraud and nine months imprisonment for money laundering, to run concurrently.
Detective chief inspector of the MPS Cyber Crime Unit Jason Tunn said the arrest and conviction of Onikoyi underlined the scale of cybercrime threats facing UK citizens.
“My officers worked doggedly to secure Onikoyi’s conviction. They examined numerous leads to identify members of this phishing gang, of which Onikoyi was a key member.
“He played a significant role in the scam by systematically targeting British students and UK financial institutions in order to steal large amounts of money that were then dispersed across numerous bank accounts.”

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