Non-Governmental Organizations: A New Paradigm for Cybercriminals

By Saron Messembe Obia

The proliferation of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in developing countries has increase the living standard in some communities, but also increased the rate of deviant behavior in relation to white collar crimes.

Cybercriminals have gone beyond the sale of pets, to operation of non-governmental organization online to solicit funds from top institutions and philanthropists. They expose images of natives or underprivileged persons and persons with disability via social networking sites, appealing for support.

Cybercriminal grab information of individuals on social networking sites, produces attestation of lost or scans ID card edit an establish new ones (even biometric identification cards) to withdraw the money from banks

Some use images of spiritual leaders or clerics to solicit funds for crusade, providing an account similar to the bank post on the website of the church or organization. Most of these posts on social networking sites usually call for subscribers to type ‘AMEN’ or donate using account similar to that of prominent churches.

Despite the creation of international and regional commissions for financial crimes, the challenge keeps persisting. Financial institutions lost huge amount of money every month, money transfer are been hacked and withdrawn by cybercriminal in partnership with dishonest staffs.

Drawing from an interview with a victim of financial fraud, she explains her ordeal; when she got to the bank to withdraw money transferred from the U.S, she was told the fund had already been withdrawn, her name was shown on the computer, her phone number, but what was not correct on that information was the date and place of birth, parents name and id card number.

The question of staff dishonest in financial crimes is strategically linked to inadequate training be it on financial agent or law enforcement officer. As such, criminal and forensics investigations bare usually oriented to the wrong target in some African countries. This is also due to inadequate cooperation between the police and the victim sometimes considered as the suspect.

In conclusion, it’s now evident that the cold war amongst super powers demonstrates the necessity of cyber warriors for developing countries for future. As cybercrime is not limited to individuals but extend to states; the Nigeria secret service database attack is a typical example.

There is need for cooperation with security experts to better understand the tools, tactics and procedure used by criminals to protect their identity and even apprehend them.

( The Writer is a security expert and consultant, specialist in cyber security, counter terrorism and jihadists tendencies)