How Terrorists Use Women's Accounts and Crowdfunding to Move Money

Terrorist financiers are now opening bank accounts in the names of women and using them secretly to transfer illegal funds. This information comes from the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU).

In its 2025 Annual Report, NFIU noted that this method is one of the new ways terrorists are financing their operations. Their report shows that male commanders and logistics managers control the accounts opened in the names of wives, sisters, and female associates.

"Terrorist financiers are opening bank accounts in women’s names while male commanders and logistics managers secretly control them. They exploit cultural norms that make women less likely to be suspected by authorities, using wives, sisters, or female associates as fronts to distance illicit funds from the true operatives," the report said.

Some women whose accounts are being used may not even know about the transactions or how much money is passing through their accounts, according to the report.

More Tactics Identified

The report also pointed out that disconnected phone registrations are another trick used by terrorist facilitators. NFIU called this practice identity laundering. The men controlling the accounts usually have the ATM cards, mobile banking details, and PINs.

"This tactic functions as identity laundering: women’s accounts are managed by men who hold ATM cards, mobile-banking credentials, and PINs, while the women often remain unaware of the transactions and volumes," the report explained.

Facilitators often use phone numbers for mobile banking alerts that do not belong to the real account owner. They use pre-registered SIM cards, those registered to dead people, or SIMs linked to gender-based proxies to break the connection between the phone number and the actual account holder. This makes it harder for investigators to trace the money.

"They bypass the security link between SIM cards and Bank Verification Numbers (BVNs) by using pre-registered SIMs, SIMs registered to deceased people, or SIMs tied to gender-based proxies. This severs the audit trail: when a transaction is flagged, investigators trace the phone to an unrelated person, letting the real facilitator stay anonymous and continue operations," NFIU stated.

Islamic State Connections

NFIU further reported that terrorist groups, especially those linked to the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), use detailed descriptions for their transactions. These groups provide precise details for payments related to logistics sent from one source to multiple recipients.

The report noted that these detailed narrations could create an internal audit trail for the terrorist group, even though they seem unusual from a financial monitoring point of view. They also identified that coded messages are used in transaction descriptions. Facilitators use harmless words, secret codes, and sometimes switch languages to avoid detection by automated filters that could identify terms related to terrorism.

"Facilitators use this coded language, often switching languages to evade banks’ automated keyword filters that flag terms like ‘Jihad,’ ‘Arms,’ or ‘Boko.’ This practice obscures the true purpose of transfers, preventing detection and enabling continued financing," the Unit revealed.

Crowdfunding Scheme

NFIU also described a four-stage crowdfunding network used to collect and move terrorist funds into Nigeria. A facilitator based outside Nigeria can start social media campaigns that look like humanitarian help or educational support, directing donors to payment pages or bank accounts.

The report mentioned that hundreds of sympathizers can make small donations, which are less likely to attract automated anti-money-laundering alerts. "Hundreds of sympathizer donors contribute $50, $500 each, amounts small enough to avoid most automated AML alerts," it explained.

These funds are gathered into a master account and then split into smaller payments. They can be sent through international money-transfer services and apps to a network of money mules in Nigeria. NFIU noted that students, small-business owners, and relatives can serve as these money mules.

The recipients can then change the funds to cash, buy items that can be used for both civilian and military purposes, or transfer the money through mobile banking to logistics managers and field operatives.