Police arrest Nigerian kingpin behind £45m of email scams

A Nigerian man thought to be behind "thousands of online frauds" worth up to $60 million (£45m) has been arrested Known only as 'Mike,' the man faces charges of hacking, conspiracy and obtaining money under false pretences after he was arrested in Port Harcourt, southern Nigeria.
It's believed the man, 40, was the "head of a network" of 40 criminals across Nigeria, Malaysia, and South Africa.
Interpol, which was involved in the arrest, said the "mastermind" was involved in providing malware, conducting online fraud and had connections to money launderers in China, Europe, and the US.
Two main scams involved: fraud where a CEO's email account was targeted; and a second where suppliers' accounts were hit. In one case Interpol believe Mike and accomplices tricked a business into paying out $15.4m (£11m).
Both scams work by tricking those working for companies that urgent payments need to be made to specific bank accounts – requests for payment are made to look like they have come from an official
For 'CEO fraud' the authorities say the email account of a "high-level executive" is compromised and a message requesting a money transfer is then sent to a staff member who handles accounts and payments. In the supplier-related fraud an email account is compromised and a fake request for immediate payment is made.
"The network compromised email accounts of small to medium businesses around the world including in Australia, Canada, India, Malaysia, Romania, South Africa, Thailand and the US, with the financial victims mainly other companies dealing with these compromised accounts," Interpol said in a statement.