A Nollywood actor lost $2,500 trying to pay a ₦2,500 traffic fine. The message said he had exceeded the speed limit and linked to what looked like an official Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) portal. He entered his card details and the larger sum vanished from his account.
The actor, Adekanla Aderinola Desalu, known as Deza The Great, said he thought the SMS was a genuine upgrade from the road safety corps. "After entering my card details, $2,500 disappeared from my account," he said.
He is not alone. Comedian MC Monica said he lost ₦1.8 million the same way. He received a message about a road safety violation, clicked the link, and paid a fine of ₦5,000. The next morning, he said, millions of naira had been wiped from his account. He questioned how the money left his Wema Bank account when the only OTP he generated was for the ₦5,000 payment.
Actress Eva Ibiam told the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) that she lost nearly ₦400,000 after clicking a link in a similar traffic offence SMS. Another Nigerian, identified on Instagram as officialfunbi, said he almost fell for the scam immediately after arriving in Abuja.
FIJ's investigation found the messages are one part of a wider operation. The foundation identified multiple websites impersonating FRSC, including frsc-gov.sbs.ng and frsc.gov.eu.cc.ng. The sites copied FRSC's branding, layout and service presentation closely enough to fool a motorist who did not inspect the web address carefully.
The official FRSC website is frsc.gov.ng. The fake domains used variations containing the words "FRSC", "gov" and "ng" to look like government sites. But frsc-gov.sbs sits outside the Nigerian government .gov.ng namespace. It is a separate domain controlled by people with no connection to the road safety corps.
FIJ tested the websites by entering made-up vehicle plate numbers, including numbers that did not follow the normal format for Nigerian plates. The sites still generated traffic offences and fines. In one test, a fake plate number produced a supposed ₦10,000 offence, followed by an offer of a 50 per cent discount if payment was made immediately.
The websites then directed users to a third-party payment page called Payfast Now. There, FIJ found requests for card details, including the card number and CVV. One version also requested the cardholder's PIN.
That is where the scam shifts from a fake traffic offence to financial theft. The victim is not simply settling a fine. They are handing financial information to a website controlled by fraudsters.
One of the fake domains was registered on September 16, the same day the scam began receiving wider attention. The registration information did not establish who was behind the site, but it confirmed the domain was not a government domain.
The scale of the losses suggests a sophisticated method. MC Monica's case, where ₦1.8 million left his account after he generated an OTP only for a ₦5,000 payment, points to a technique known as an Adversary-in-the-Middle (AiTM) attack, also called a Real-Time Phishing Relay. This allows scammers to capture and relay a victim's information and OTPs during a live transaction.
The urgency of a traffic fine is what the fraudsters exploit. Motorists would rather deal with the message quickly than investigate it. A ₦2,500 fine seems small. The link looks official. The payment page asks for standard card details. By the time the victim checks their bank balance, the money is gone.
FIJ found that one fake domain was registered on September 16, the same day the scam began receiving wider attention. The registration information did not establish who was behind the site, but it confirmed the domain was not an FRSC government domain.
According to Pulse.ng.
