Naira Marley’s chains of credit card fraud unveiled
Admin l Wednesday, October 23, 2019
IKOYI, Lagos, Nigeria – The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) today told a Federal High Court that the source of wealth of Azeez Fashola better known as Naira Marley has nothing to do with his musical skill but his ICT wizardry, which he deploys in denying international bank account holders of their hard earned money through credit card fraud.
Mr. Nuru Buhari, Head of EFCC’s Forensic Department and one of the witnesses of the antigraft agency who was led in evidence by Rotimi Oyedepo told the court that details of some credit cards presumed to have been stolen were retrieved from Naira Marley’s laptop.
According to him, details of information on websites’ visit history recovered from Naira Marley’s laptop showed that the top five most visited sites were configured for buying and selling stolen credit card information. Nuru Buhari named the websites as arder007.org, Zuni.sanationwidecheckbalance.co.uk, and cocoa.co.uk., which he summarily referred to as web 1 to web 4, allegedly used for the credit card fraud.
“Analysis of the websites also revealed that web 1 is where stolen card information is sold to intending fraudsters, web 2 is for stolen credit cards specifically meant for the UK, web 3 is an online website designed for UK card holders to check their balance anywhere they are around the world. Web 4 is a dark web meaning an underground tunnel in the internet where stolen credit card information are sold and traded, web 5 is an online shopping mall where members are given discounts for shopping from certain shops. ”
He said the cards, which he presumably uses for credit card fraud had special status that allows transaction up-to $12,000 without a pin or physical card with a file named select BIN 101.txt and .txt.
“For the note file, two major files were discovered named .txt which contained about four credit card information belonging to four different personalities in the UK including one Nicole Louise. The second file is named selected BIN101.txt containing Bank Identification Number of European, American and Latin American banks. ”
” The BIN code search for the first six digits of the cards, revealed they are Visa cards issued by Barclay’s Bank, Sandander UK Plc.and certain banks in US, Europe and Asia with certain peculiarities. These are banks that issue credit cards without pins based on the high level of trust, they allow a transaction of up to $12,000 in a swipe on POS . ”
“Cards issued by these banks are cards which do not require pins. All that is needed to execute a transaction is the credit card number and the CVV number. In addition suspicious applications that are mostly used by people with shady deals on the internet were found on the laptop.
“We analysed installed apps on the laptop and we found two apps that enable the owner of the computer to deny the server of a bank his identity and location, IP VANISH and TOR browser. The TOR browser is sometimes called the onion. Most of the criminals cover their tracks with various layers just like an onion using this app to make it near impossible for a tracker to track their location.”
“The IP VANISH is a virtual private network (VPN) which provides that the actual computer and location of usage cannot be identified. It also gives the users the ability to change their location”, he said.
He told the court that analysis of the administrator account on the laptop revealed that the admin is one Naira Marley and the account was connected to his iCloud account.
The prosecution led by Rotimi Oyedepo sought permission of the court for analysis of the Apple laptop, Mac book pro and an iPhone labelled by the court as exhibit A and B. But defence counsel, Mr. Olalekan Ojo SAN, told the court that most of the statements made by the witness are not in the documents provided by the prosecution and the defence is just hearing them for the first time and would need to closely review the statements before cross examining the witness.
The presiding Judge, Nicholas Oweibo adjourned till Thursday, October 24, 2019 for the witness to be cross -examined and to continue the trial in Naira Marley credit card fraud trial.
