Customs Service battles internet fraudsters

The Nigeria Customs Service has upped its fight against in­ternet scammers who dis­guised as officers to defraud unsus­pecting job seekers that they will help them secure employment and con­tracts in the service.
Also, messages of purported sales and auction have continued to sur­face on the internet. THE AUTHOR­ITY CUSTOMS WATCH observed that the fraudsters usually give de­tails of vehicles and their correspond­ing prices which are reasonable with contact telephone numbers to lure in­tending customers.

Few days ago, there emanated a link purportedly from NCS where those who wish to join the service could visit to register and make some pay­ments.
Though NCS has described the news that the service is currently re­cruiting a a fraud, many Nigerians have fallen victims to these dupers.
Thus, the need to clampdown on these fraudsters cannot be over-em­phasized. Already, the service has said it has arrested 12 persons in connec­tion with the recent scam.
It warned that it is launching on an all-out war against internet fraudsters who specialise in extorting money from innocent
Nigerians under the pretext of of­fering them jobs, auctions or con­tracts.
A statement by Public Relations Of­ficer, Wale Adeniji said the integrat­ed approach on social media, is com­ing on the heels of recent upsurge of fraudsters using the name of the NCS to solicit applications for non-existent job offers for a fee that is usually paid into personal bank accounts.
“The advert currently circulating on the WhatsApp platform is the lat­est of those criminal attempts to mis­lead desperate job-seekers.
The post which went viral over the weekend is a copy and paste repro­duction of the previous recruitment adverts, with a clever insertion of the Service website address. To achieve their criminal objective, the same ad­vert directs applicants to visit a fake website which is www.customsre­cruit.com.ng. Victims are eventually requested to make some payments to complete the phoney forms.
“Already 12 suspects have been ar­rested and will be soon charged to court. The general public is there­fore advised to discountenance such advertisements found in any online platforms except those released in the NCS authentic and authoritative plat­forms,” Adeniji said.