Farida
Waziri ,chairman of Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission ,EFCC is on
a rare visit to the United States of
America.The opportunity is being used to
showcase her activities as Nigeria's
anti graft commission's
boss.Though there have been reports that
she may have been shunned by State
Department officials, a release from the
EFCC claims that Waziri has had ''series
of meetings and interactions with top US
government officials on Monday and
Tuesday in Washington where issues on
Nigeria’s anti-graft war and support for
EFCC initiatives topped the agenda.''
Read the EFCC titled:
``EFCC Shuts Down 800 Scam Websites,
Busts 18 Syndicates''
``The Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC
has shut down no fewer than 800 scam
websites and arrested members of 18
syndicates behind the fraudulent scheme
in a renewed bid to clap down on
internet fraudsters through an
initiative tagged ” project eagle claw”.
Chairman of the
anti-graft agency, Mrs Farida Waziri
disclosed in Las Vegas, United States on
Wednesday while addressing a gathering
of US mayors at the 35th
Annual Convention of Black Mayors on
“global vision for local
action: a paradigm of connectivity in
the African Diaspora”
Top officials of the
National Conference of Black Mayors ,NCBM,
led by their President, Ms Heather
Hudson had during a visit to the EFCC
chairman in Abuja on Monday July 29
invited her to address the annual event
as part of efforts to foster greater
relationship between the US authorities
and the anti-graft Commission.
According to
Waziri,
“We expect that Eagle Claw as conceived
will be 100% operational within six
months and at full capacity, it will
take Nigeria out of the top 10 list of
countries with the highest incidence of
fraudulent e-mails. At the moment, Eagle
Claw has delivered the following
results:
“Over 800
fraudulent e-mail addresses have been
identified and shut down. The EFCC is
fine tuning security modalities with
Microsoft and upon full deployment, the
capacity to take down fraudulent e-mails
will increase to 5,000 monthly. Further
it is projected that advisory mails to
be sent to victims and potential victims
will be about 230,000 monthly.
“There have been
18 arrests of high profile syndicates
operating cyber crime organizations.”
While justifying her decision to adopt
the latest strategy against cyber crime,
Waziri said “Project Eagle Claw
is an initiative of the EFCC for the
smart use of technology in fighting
cyber crime. Hitherto the EFCC structure
for combating cyber crime revolved
around Cyber raids and Investigation of
petitions.
“However the
proactive stance of the new leadership
required a radical departure and Eagle
Claw was developed. When it is fully
deployed, it will afford the EFCC the
option of either monitoring or shutting
down all fraudulent email addresses. The
EFCC would also have identified victims
and potential victims and advised them
that their email has been compromised.”
Her address at
the Black Mayors Convention was preceded
by series of meetings and interactions
with top US government officials on
Monday and Tuesday in Washington where
issues on Nigeria’s anti-graft war and
support for EFCC initiatives topped the
agenda.
Femi Babafemi
Head, Media & Publicity
22/10/09
|
