By Maria Famakinwa

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The United States of America (US) Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently ranked Nigeria 16th among the countries that were most affected by internet crimes in the world in year 2020.
The FBI in its 2020 Internet Crime Report (ICR) said that Nigeria received 443 complaints relating to internet crimes within the year. The crime report stated that the FBI in 2000 received a total of 5,679,259 complaints and an average of 440,000 complaints per year. The report noted that one of the most prevalent scams witnessed during the pandemic was impersonation.
The report revealed that criminals are reaching out to people through social media, emails or phone calls, pretending to be from the government. The report further stated that fraudsters took advantage of the year 2020 because of the pandemic.
It would be recalled that Nigerian entrepreneur, Obinwanne Okeke was arrested by the FBI at Dulles International Airport in Virginia in August 2019 for masterminding an $11 million cyber fraud on a British company and has been jailed by a US federal court for 10 years.
Another Nigerian Instagram celebrity, Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, also known as Ray Hushpuppi, was also arrested in a Dubai hotel in June 2020. He is currently facing criminal charges alleging he conspired to launder hundreds of millions of dollars from Business Email Compromise (BEC) frauds and other scams.
It would be recalled that former Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan, in order to ward off all forms of attacks on Nigeria’s cyber space and protect Nigerians from criminals using technology to bully them, signed Cyber Crime Bill into law in 2015. The law prohibits cyber theft, identity theft, internet fraud, hacking, cyber bullying, child pornography and cyber squatting among others with stiff penalties.
According to its provisions, anyone convicted of child pornography is liable on conviction to a 10-year jail term or N20 million fines, depending on the nature of the offence. The law also criminalises cyber stalking and cyber bullying. Anyone convicted of these stands the risk of a N2 million minimum fine or at least one year in prison. If hackers were found guilty of unlawfully accessing a computer system or network, they could be fined up to N10 million, imprisoned for five years or both depending on the purpose of the hack. The same applies to internet fraudsters. Some cyber experts who spoke with The Hope proffered solutions to the rising cyber crime.
In the submission of Mr Francis Ipaye, a programme developer, he explained that cyber crime manifested itself in different categories in the country, including internet fraud, software piracy, hacking, online scam and credit card fraud, among others and appealed to the Federal Government to equip the police for better performance.
His words:” Though the police are doing their best at reducing cyber crimes in the country, the challenges confronting the police in tackling the problem are legion. However, the government needs to establish a functional, well-equipped and effective computer forensic department within the Police Force to check the antics of cyber criminals. There is a need for more efforts in developing skills.”
In his reaction to USA FBI that recently ranked Nigeria 16th among the countries that were most affected by internet crime, he said that it was not unexpected, given the daily reported cases of cyber crimes in the country.
“I do not expect anything different, likewise most Nigerians who want to be sincere. Internet fraud is on the rise due to get rich quick syndrome among the youth. They want to ride the latest cars without working, regrettably some parents are supporting them. Because some of them are getting away with cyber crimes, others are joining them. To reduce cyber crimes across the country, parents must join in the fight,” he said.
Sharing a similar sentiment, Information and Communication Technology expert, Mr Ramon Akintomide, who observed that Nigerians are being defrauded online on a daily basis, charged the government to ensure that whosoever is caught in cyber crime faces the consequences according to the law of the land.
He said, ”Nigeria lacks policies and regulations that will stimulate laws to protect the cyber space for locals and foreign investors that do business in the country. There is need to expand the scope of IT for national safety and security as an outstanding and indispensable revenue earner, job creator, youth developer, innovation enabler and growth simulator. With Nigeria venturing into cashless society, there is a need for cyber crimes menace to be minimized if not completely eradicated.”
Another cyber expert, Ifeoluwa Jaiyeola, revealed that the proliferation of internet in Nigeria has come with unintended consequences, especially as a haven for criminals. According to him, the trend became more worrisome with the use of internet for sales of products and services. He noticed that when the seller is genuine, the buyer may be fraudulent. He called for an overarching need for constant creation of awareness on cyber crime laws and that all relevant regulatory authorities must be compelled to comply.
Jaiyeola, who condemned the attitude of some Nigerians for taking undue advantage of digital infrastructure to pose grave threats to national security, urged the Federal Government to make provision for computer emergency response teams. His words,” There should be a computer emergency response team to improve the nation’s preparedness to secure its cyberspace. There should also be a more proactive Information Technology approach to combat the menace of insecurity in the country.
“Another way of combating cyber crimes is taking reasonable steps to protect one’s property by ensuring that firms protect their infrastructure like Networks and computer systems. Government should also ensure that Cyber Crime Bill signed into law in 2015 by the former President Goodluck Jonathan are strictly adhered to.
“Until perpetrators of cyber crimes are made to face the wrath of the law to serve as warning to others, the crime will continue to be on the rise. What is more painful is that cyber crime perpetrators are denting the image of the country in foreign lands. As we speak, some Nigerians, especially youths are serving jail terms in foreign prisons due to internet frauds. Back in Nigeria, everyone is a suspect, nobody trusts anybody. These fraudulent acts are not good for the reputation of the country. All the tiers of government must put their arsenals together to fight cyber crimes in the country. Individuals should also observe simple rules by ensuring antivirus protection on their computer systems. ”he said.