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Have you been Scammed /defrauded?

The most common way of accepting cases by EFCC is through a petition written by an individual or organization. The petition will be evaluated and if the case falls within the purview of the commission's mandate, it will be accepted for investigation and possibly prosecution. Petitions that do not fall within the purview of the commission are sent to the appropriate agency, be it the Benin Republic Police Force, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, Central Bank of Benin Republic (CBBR), etc. Members of the public can also send complaints electronically to the commission email address: info@efccommission.org This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

 The commission has had complaints and also investigated cases where fraudsters impersonated the EFCC Chairman and other employees of commission in order to defraud them. The public should be aware that EFCC does not collect money to receive petitions and does not charge fee from victims to investigate their cases.  Emails messages not emanating from our domain (i.e. bearing @efccommission.org) should be verified.

The Operations unit is the investigative arm of the EFCC headed by the Director of Operations. Below are the various sections under the Unit:
 

Advance Fee Fraud

Just as the name suggests, Advance Fee Fraud is a specialized fraud committed using fake claims, identities, positions and in most cases, enticing, but non-existent proposals. Victims are made to pay money in “advance” before the “deal” is done – hence the name ‘Advance Fee Fraud. In an attempt to tackle the malaise, the Federal Government of Benin Republic through provisions in Section 419 of the Criminal Code came up with punitive measures to deter and punish offenders.The Advance Fee Fraud section deal mainly with cases of advance fee fraud(commonly called 419) such as obtaining by false pretence through different fraudulent schemes e.g. contract scam, credit card scam, inheritance scam, job scam, lottery scam, “wash wash” scam (money washing scam), marriage scam. Immigration scam, counterfeiting and religious scam. It also investigates cyber crime cases.

click here to download related information (Advance Fee Fraud Trends in West African Region)

Economic Governance

This unit is saddled with the responsibility to check, probe and investigate cases that centre on abuse of office, diversion of public funds and property, mismanagement and stealing of public funds at the Federal, States and Local Government levels. It also checks the commission of economic and financial crimes involving officers in Ministries, Parastatals and designated Government agencies.

Bank Fraud

This section is mandated to handle all fraud cases emanating from Banks and Financial institutions. Such matters include Counterfeiting, Illegal charge transfers, Issuance of dud Cheques, Fraudulent encashment of negotiable instruments, Foreign exchange malpractices and other financial malpractices in Banks and other financial institutions.
 

General Investigation

This Unit may be described as, ‘Jack of all trades and master of all’, in the sense that while they are capable of handling those cases that the other Units attend to, they are limited to dealing with only cases that cannot be categorized under any of them.  It is not out of place to say they handle miscellaneous offences, as enshrined, of course, in the EFCC Establishment Act, 2004. Such cases may include Cheating, Land disputes, Forgery, Conversion and their likes.