Experts urge Nigerians to publish fraudsters’ phone numbers

Security experts in Lagos on Sunday urged Nigerians to publish and report phone numbers of suspected fraudsters on every available platform, so that the appropriate security agencies could go after them.

In separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, they said that reporting the numbers would reduce cases of fraudsters who deceive unsuspecting members of the public and defraud them.

Mr Festus Akapo, a security consultant, said that with the advent of the social media, Nigerians could easily publish the phone numbers of suspected fraudsters and alert the public to be wary of them. “Through the social media, security agencies can be alerted and mobile network providers will also be alerted, so that they can work together to track down the fraudsters,” he said.

Also, Mr Charles Sullivan, Head Media Operations at Bells Security, said that Nigerians often take for granted how far the little effort of publishing or reporting a fraudsters’ phone number could go. “Whenever we receive fraudulent calls, we should endeavour to make public the phone numbers and also share on various social media forum until it gets to the appropriate authority,” he said.

Mr Ayodeji Fadipe, a security consultant, equally said that the only way Nigerians could help security agencies was to provide them with adequate information on any perceived criminal activity. “One of the ways to do this is to save the suspected fraudsters’ phone number and forward it to security agents for proper investigation.

“Although the fraudulent subscribers should be easily tracked, if the number had been registered, the most important thing is collaboration between security agencies and network providers.” Contributing, Mr Michael Ehizoje, another security expert, said that there were mobile phone applications that would ordinarily reveal the identity of a caller and make it easy to report a fraudulent call.

“There are different user-friendly applications to track fraudulent calls; Nigerians should not feel reluctant to report these fraudsters to the relevant security agencies,” he said.