EFCC Arrests Satellite Broadcast Scammer in Kano

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Friday August 23, 2013 arrested one Tope Ajayi over his alleged involvement in digital satellite broadcast scam. Ajayi was picked up by operatives of EFCC from his apartment located at 26 Link Bawo Road in Hausawa area of Kano following intelligence report.

Over 100 decoders and other computer gadgets were recovered from his server room by operatives of the Commission during a search on his apartment.

 Ajayi who claimed to have worked with Skye Bank Plc is said to be a major digital satellite broadcast scammer. He is alleged to have a server that links up with a server in China and an unknown Internet Service Provider, ISP, somewhere in Europe or the United State of America.

The suspect is also alleged to be engaged in illegal importation, selling and distribution of pirate devices popularly known as Dungle which enables subscribers to have free access to Multichoice satellite signals across West and Central Africa.

According to Mr Frikkie Jonker, Senior Anti-Piracy Manager, Multichoice, Ajayi’s server is considered strong as it controls its counterpart server in China and distributes satellite signals to a host of West African and Central African countries including Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya Uganda and Benin Republic .

It was also revealed that the suspect had been extracting control words from multichoice cards in Nigeria and sending same to a server in China which is connected to an ISP server placed somewhere in Europe or America.

Jonker, who expressed his gratitude to the EFCC for the arrest, described the scam as one of the biggest in recent time.

Ajayi will be arraigned in court when investigation is concluded.