In a joint United States-Nigeria crackdown on cyber-scams, nearly 300 people have been arrested for hijacking wire transfers from companies and individuals at Lagos in a months-long operation. Nigerian and US authorities said,<b> </b>Operation re-Wired broke up multiple groups, many party of transnational criminal gangs, running the so-called Business Email Compromise (BEC) schemes by which they steal money being used in payments.<br />''<span style="color: #222222;"><br />''The US Justice Department said, the schemes, originated in Nigeria, have spread worldwide and led to 1.3 billion US Dollars in losses reported worldwide in 2018, double the previous year. The operation has led to 167 people arrested in Nigeria, 74 in the United States, many of them Nigerian nationals, 18 in Turkey and 15 in Ghana. Adding other arrests in France, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Britain and Kenya, a total of 281 people have been arrested and 3.7 million US Dollars seized in Operation re-Wired,said the Justice Department.</span><br />