Fraudster clones ministers phone,swindles him of N3 million

Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Senator Bala Muhammad, has fallen victim to a man, who specialises in cloning phone numbers and using same to commit large scale fraud in the process.

The Minister, according to security information, fell into the trap set for him by one Ibrahim Sabo Takat, who lives in Wuye District of the FCT, who used his phone number and gave instructions, as if the Minister was the one doing so.

In particular, Takat succeeded in ordering the Chief of Staff to the Minister to pay the sum of N3 million into his own account domiciled with Diamond Bank with number 0011141544, posing as if the Minister was the one giving the order.

Unknown to the Chief of Staff, he quickly arranged and paid the amount into Takat's account on Thursday, August 8, 2013 without suspecting any foul play.

Shortly after the amount hit the account, Takat promptly withdrew it and disappeared into
thin air.

But he ran out of luck shortly after when the Minister smelt a rat and reported the huge swindle to the security agencies, when he discovered that he did not issue any instruction to this Chief of Staff to pay the N3 million into the fraudster's account.

The FCT Director of Security confirmed the arrest of Takat yesterday to journalists in Abuja and said that he would be charged after concluding investigations into the fraudulent act.

Takat was paraded by Ibrahim Halilu, on behalf of the DSS Director FCT Command, who also asked members of the public to be careful with the way the handle their phones and who they give their numbers to.