A nationwide financial fraud scheme has hit more than 3,286 Nigerians, following the collapse of a bogus investment outfit, EMAAR Investment and Financial Management Platform, which allegedly operated through multiple virtual bank accounts opened by a Nigerian microfinance bank.
Estimated losses stand at about ₦147 million.
Victims from various states have begun legal action against the platform’s operators and the microfinance bank accused of providing and maintaining the virtual accounts used to collect deposits.
They allege negligence, regulatory breaches and failure to conduct the mandatory verification required under the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Customer Due Diligence Regulations, 2023.
Findings indicate that the syndicate lured unsuspecting Nigerians through aggressive online advertising, paid influencer promotions and a professionally designed website promising high-yield real-estate investment returns.
Depositors were directed to pay into several accounts bearing a uniform business identity, which victims believed belonged to a legitimate investment company.
Trouble began in late 2025 when the platform abruptly went offline, locking investors out of their dashboards and cutting all communication channels.
Subsequent checks by victim groups revealed that the operation relied on numerous virtual accounts opened in mid-June 2025, with transaction volumes surging between September and October.
A victim who lost ₦150,000 described the scheme as “a coordinated rip-off facilitated by financial institutions that failed to protect Nigerians.” Another insisted:
“We did not lose this money because we were careless; we lost it because a regulated bank opened fake accounts for criminals without verifying who they were.”
Crowd-sourced data from victims show losses ranging from ₦10,000 to over ₦2 million, with civil servants, low-income earners and students among the hardest hit.
Through their lawyers, the victims have issued a pre-action notice to the microfinance bank, demanding full restitution of all funds channelled through the accounts, judicial declarations of negligence, and orders restraining the bank from opening similar accounts without proper due-diligence checks. They are also seeking interest on all sums allegedly collected unlawfully.
Financial compliance experts say the incident highlights rising fraud vulnerabilities associated with Nigeria’s fast-expanding virtual account ecosystem.
A Lagos-based analyst noted that banks are required to verify customer identities, monitor unusual patterns and suspend suspicious accounts, adding that the opening of multiple virtual accounts for an unidentified operator “raises serious compliance red flags.”
