The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), on Friday, disclosed that it has uncovered and is actively dismantling a syndicate issuing fake National Identity Numbers (NINs) to unsuspecting Nigerians.
NIMC Director General, Abisoye Coker-Odusote, during a press briefing in Abuja, disclosed that several suspects involved in the fraudulent scheme have been arrested and are currently facing prosecution.
Members of the syndicate were apprehended following a complaint from a customer who reported paying N120,000 to modify her birth certificate, a service fraudulently offered by individuals posing as NIMC employees.
“This data does not come to our server and a lot of Nigerians have been scammed,” Coker-Odusote said, emphasizing the gravity of the issue.
The DG further revealed that, as of May 2024, the NIN database had successfully enrolled over 107.34 million Nigerians, a significant increase from 104 million in December 2023.
The NIN has become an essential tool for enhancing security, governance, and service delivery across various government platforms.
Coker-Odusote detailed how the syndicate operated, often masquerading as business vendors or cyber café operators.
They crafted links, developed software, and generated fake NINs, duping many into believing they were legitimate.
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The operation was sophisticated. The fake data never reached the official NIMC servers, thereby eluding immediate detection.
The discovery of the fraud ring prompted further investigations, which identified additional suspects operating around NIMC’s annex office.
Coker-Odusote expressed her frustration with the ongoing extortion and data breaches.
The NIMC boss, however, declined to disclose details on the number of persons being interrogated but assured that as soon as the investigation is concluded they would be charged to court for cybercrimes.
Odusote said, “I am going to speak on extortion, data breach and privacy. When we carried out our investigations, we discovered that around NIMC’s offices, people were parading as business vendors and cyber cafes, creating links for unsuspecting persons, designing software and generating fake NINs for people.
“This data does not come to our server and a lot of Nigerians have been scammed. We record an influx of crowd, people coming into the office telling us that they registered but we can’t find their data on the system. We have a lot of these instances with citizens claiming to have paid money to people who do not have any connection to NIMC.
“They (offenders) have perfected the act of trying to mimic what NIMC does. So we decided to clamp down on these people and have arrested offenders. These persons don’t have any connection with the commission at all. We don’t have any internal data breaches because we have one of the best in the world.”
“We will not allow them to parade as if they are part of us and they are not,” she stated, confirming the emotional and financial toll on victims.
