Four Nigerians have been arrested in the Philippines for allegedly hacking and siphoning funds from banks in the country.

The National Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday said the Nigerian nationals were arrested in Muntinlupa City.

It alleged that they are part of an international syndicate that hacks and siphons funds from banks.

According to the NBI, the fraudsters’ transactions were traced when they hacked a system of one Philippine bank, where at least P100 million (about ₦789,915,000) were transferred and funnelled into a different account.

“The international syndicate is complicated.. to the point that they study the system’s flaws. Once they see a weakness, they will take advantage of that” NBI Cybercrime Division chief Vic Lorenzo said.

One of the suspects’ Filipina girlfriend admitted to having used her account to deposit and withdraw money amounting to at least P2 million, which was supposedly for tuition.

Blank ATM cards and bank receipts were confiscated from the suspects.

The Nigerians denied the allegations, citing that they were here in the country to study and that they know nothing about the hacking incident. The funds withdrawn were donations from a Nigerian student community, one of them said.

The NBI said the Nigerians violated the Access Device Law, Anti-Cybercrime law and falsification of public documents.