A professor of criminology, victimology, and security at the University of Ibadan, Oludayo Tade, has advocated for a coordinated strategic sensitization of Nigerians to combat the growing virtual assets and investment frauds effectively.
The senior researcher made the call in Ibadan on Thursday while delivering the lecture to commemorate the 2025 African Union Anti-Corruption Day at an event organised by the Ibadan Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
According to him, the government at all levels and other critical stakeholders must make efforts to sufficiently educate the populace on the modus operandi of online fraudsters so that they don’t fall victim to their antics.
“Continue to speak on it. Continue to conscientise people. It is not only the uneducated that fall victim, the educated people are also defrauded. The uneducated are not here (at the lecture). How does it (the awareness) get to the grassroots? How do we sustain it? How does it become part of what we teach and learn at the university, at the primary school? If we cannot scale most of these things down, it will not be part of our culture. And people will continue to be defrauded,” he counseled.
Prof. Tade emphasized that virtual asset and investment fraud is global and not peculiar to economically disadvantaged countries like Nigeria, adding that the burgeoning opportunities in the virtual environment aids it itself widespread.
He warned people to be wary of staking their hard-earned money on investments that promise outrageous percentage interests as return on investment.
In a message delivered on his behalf by the Ibadan zonal director of the commission, Hajiya Hauwa Garba Ringim, the executive chairman of EFCC, Ola Olukoyede, hinted that some politicians were exploring the virtual space to stash away funds from the country.
He noted that though investment in virtual assets is not against the law, people with fraudulent intents are exploring the loopholes in the system to perpetrate different kinds of economic and financial crimes.
“For us at the EFCC, virtual asset fraud and investment scams are not hard nuts to crack. Proactive and broad-based training and intelligence are bringing fraudulent schemes to the fore. We are ahead in every material sense and there are enormous proofs of operational successes in this regard, especially the breakthrough in investigation and prosecution of the infamous CBEX scam.
“Investment fraud, like virtual asset fraud, is spreading like wildfire across Africa. Fraudsters are exploiting vulnerabilities of desperate investors to defraud them through various dishonest schemes. Every exploitation of investors in any guise is considered a fraudulent act. Ponzi schemes rank as one of the most pervasive of such acts.
“Understanding virtual assets and investment fraud will not be complete without drawing serious attention to the role of investing public in breaking the opportunistic practices of fraudsters floating various schemes to defraud Nigerians. We are all aware of the hues and cries of many investors in CBEX that lost their funds to the shenanigans of the operators. This unfortunate situation is preventable,” the EFCC boss noted.
