Computer Hacker Jailed For £1.5m Student Scam

According to reports, Some 238 UK students had their bank accounts raided after Nigerian Olajide Onikoyi tricked them into handing over their passwords.

A computer hacker who broke into the bank accounts of hundreds of UK students after

Olajide Onikoyi, 29, from Manchester, sent fake emails to potential victims inviting them to click on a link to update their student-loan details.

But the website was bogus and Onikoyi used the personal details he collected to access the accounts and remove hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The Nigerian national helped launder £393,000 from 238 victims, including one student who had £19,000 taken from their account.

When police seized his computer, they found chat logs from cyber-crime forums that revealed he was conspiring with criminals in Russia, Lithuania and the UK.

A number of other people have also been jailed over the scam which police say involved a total of £1.5m stolen from unauthorised access to accounts.

At London’s Southwark Crown Court Onikoyi pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years in prison for conspiracy to defraud and nine months for money laundering, to run consecutively.

Detective Chief Inspector Jason Tunn of the Met Police's Cyber Crime Unit said: "My officers worked doggedly to secure Onikoyi's conviction.

"They examined numerous leads to identify members of this phishing gang, of which Onikoyi was a key member.

"He played a significant role in the scam by systematically targeting British students and UK financial institutions in order to steal large amounts of money that were then dispersed across numerous bank accounts."