Terrorists Now Using Dead People’s Bank Accounts and Online Fundraising to Finance Attacks — NFIU
By Victor Idajili
The Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit says terrorist groups have devised new ways to raise and move money, including running crowdfunding campaigns online and opening bank accounts in the names of women and even dead people.
This was contained in the NFIU’s 2025 Annual Report.
According to the report, financiers are now using social media to solicit donations abroad under the cover of “humanitarian aid” or “education support.” Hundreds of people are asked to donate small amounts between $50 and $500 into PayPal pages or regular bank accounts. The amounts are kept low deliberately to avoid triggering anti-money laundering alerts.
The NFIU gave an example of how it works:
A facilitator based abroad runs social media campaigns and shares payment links on encrypted apps like Telegram and Signal. Donors send money into what looks like a legitimate account. Once enough money is pooled into a “master account” managed by a senior member living abroad, the funds are then broken into smaller transfers.
The money is sent to Nigeria in batches through International Money Transfer Operators and remittance apps to what the NFIU calls “money mules” students, small-business owners, and relatives. From there, the cash is either withdrawn, used to buy items like motorcycles, fertiliser and satellite internet equipment, or moved through mobile banking to field commanders.
The Unit also flagged the use of “gender-based proxy accounts.” Terrorist financiers are opening bank accounts in women’s names wives, sisters, or female associates while male commanders secretly control the ATM cards, mobile banking apps and PINs. The idea, NFIU said, is to exploit the fact that women are less likely to be suspected.
In the same way, facilitators are using phone numbers that don’t belong to the account holders. They use pre-registered SIM cards, SIMs registered to deceased persons, and SIMs linked to those proxy accounts. This breaks the link between a bank account, SIM card and BVN, making it harder for investigators to trace the real operator.
NFIU also found that terrorist cells, especially those linked to ISWAP, are using very detailed transaction descriptions to keep internal records almost like a “shadow government” with its own accounting system.
Other times, they do the opposite: using harmless words, codes, or random letters and numbers, and switching languages to avoid bank systems that flag words like “Jihad” or “Boko.”
The report said fraud remains a major problem, with a rise in Ponzi schemes, fake crowdfunding, crypto scams and hacking. Many of these exploit weaknesses in fintech onboarding where accounts can be opened with little ID.
It also highlighted the diversion of state and local government funds through accounts of finance officers and their associates. Cash transactions and weak procurement processes were listed as major loopholes that make tracking dirty money difficult.
NFIU said it has shared advisories and intelligence with security agencies, banks and policymakers to help block these channels.
Security expert Chidi Omeje said security and financial agencies must move faster because “these guys grow in sophistication and desperation every single day.” He urged the Police, DSS and regulators to “follow the money trail” and shut down the networks.
Former police commissioner Lawrence Alobi called for stronger intelligence sharing and better bank verification. “Banks must sit up and ensure there is a real, verifiable person behind every account, not someone acting by proxy,” he said. He also warned that banks found aiding the practice should be sanctioned.
The NFIU said it will continue to monitor these trends and issue alerts to cut off funding to terrorist groups.
