The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has issued a warning to the public about fraudsters who position themselves around its offices across the country to deceive unsuspecting Nigerians.
The Commission clarified that these criminals are being apprehended and prosecuted according to the law and have no affiliation with the NIMC.
The Director-General and CEO of NIMC, Engr. Abisoye Cokeer Odusote, issued this warning during a media briefing in Abuja on Friday. “There are numerous fraudsters around NIMC offices and we are making efforts to apprehend these individuals,” said the Director-General.
He further explained, “When it comes to data breaches, we don’t have internal data breaches. Nigeria is recognized for having one of the world’s finest databases.
“Data breaches can sometimes be self-inflicted. For example, an external company can generate a NIN for you. You create a software, a system, and state your intention to create these things.
“The issue is that you are producing counterfeit NINs for people and this data is not being sent to my server. A large number of people are falling victim to scams.
“As a result, we now have a surge of people coming to the office, claiming that they have registered but their details are not appearing on the system.
“They’ve been scammed after paying money to fraudsters. They’ve paid money to individuals who have no association with NIMC.
“Occasionally, when we encounter situations like Express Verify and others, we apprehend them and upon thorough investigation of their systems, we discover they have no ties with NIMC.
“The country is facing challenges, so they’ve devised more sophisticated ways to deceive people. We are dealing with a lot of these issues,” he added.
She also discussed the consolidation of multiple SIM cards by an individual and linking them to the National Identity Number (NIN), stating that this would aid in combating insecurity, particularly terrorism and kidnapping.
“Another prevalent issue is that of multiple SIM cards. So, what we are doing now is attempting to consolidate these SIM cards. This would significantly help in curbing terrorism and issues like kidnapping.
“To address the NIN-SIM linkage, we have a joint task force within the counter-terrorism center, which is under the office of the National Security Adviser, in collaboration with the NCC,” she said.
