Philippines to deport three Nigerians for love scam, fraud

Philippines authorities plan to deport three Nigerians for engaging in a series of love scams and overstaying in the country.

Philippines Bureau of Immigration (BI) Intelligence Division Chief Fortunato Manahan Jr identified the three Nigerians as Shaka Hashimu Dirisu, 41; Anih Chinedu Miracle, 27; and Gabriel Daniel Evans, 31.

He said the three were arrested by the BI in coordination with the Armed Forces of the Philippines in Bacoor, Cavite.

The three face deportation cases for overstaying, misrepresentation, and for being undesirable aliens, in violation of the Philippine Immigration Act of 1940.

Manahan said the three have been allegedly involved in love scams targeting Filipinas they meet online and reportedly defrauded them of large sums of money.

“We are also investigating their links to a South African organized crime group and other scamming and fraud activities, as well as looking into possible cohorts that are still in the country,” Manahan said.

“They have been using several aliases, and their documents reveal that they are already overstaying.”

Philippine’s BI in September 2020 arrested four Nigerians in Municipal City for alleged involvement in the hacking stealing of funds from banks.

BI Cybercrime Division chief Vic Lorenzo said the Nigerians were part of an international syndicate who hack banking systems, taking advantage of the flaws in their systems.

The NBI said the Nigerians violated the Access Device Law, Anti-Cyber-crime law and falsification of public documents.

Philippines-based ABS-CBN News said fraudulent transactions were traced after they hacked a system of one Philippine bank, where at least P100 million were transferred and diverted into a different account.

The Nigerians, however, denied the fraudulent allegations, claiming that they were in the Philippines to study and that they know nothing about the hacking incident.

One of the suspects said the funds withdrawn were donations from a Nigerian student community for their education.

Meanwhile, Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari had urged the international community not to use the questionable acts of a few people to judge all Nigerians, saying they “are a minority, they do not represent the values of our country.”