3 Nigerian Caught In Dating Scamming In Usa
An alleged scam syndicate with ties to Nigeria has stolen more than $7 million from vulnerable Australians.
A Nigerian scammer tried to rip me off. So, I decided to give him a chance to turn his life around. This will require going undercover to discover his secret. Aug 03, 2018 Nevertheless, the “Nigerian Prince” moniker persists. But today’s 419 scams can involve dating websites, like the one that ensnared Maria Grette. Wealthy orphans claiming to need an adult.
- Chelsea has been a direct victim of romance scams herself losing over $35,000 in a span of a year in 2015. She joined and took over operations of RomanceScams.org in 2015. She brings first-hand experience in studying romance scams, and also experience in vetting dating sites for legitimacy. Read more of Chelsea's articles.
- Jul 08, 2020 Turns out, Nigerian citizen Olalekan Jacob Ponle was an international cyber scam artist. Now he’s been arrested and extradited to the U.S., where many of his victims were located. “Stop letting people make you feel guilty for the wealth you’ve acquired,” Ponle posted on Instagram while standing next to a shiny yellow Lamborghini in Dubai and wearing designer jewelry and Gucci clothes from head to toe.
Police tracked the money taken from romance, business and email scams, and have arrested 25 people, and laid 135 charges.
Jane, who is a 58-year-old nurse from Sydney, lost half a million dollars after falling in love with a fake profile off a dating website.
READ MORE:How an Aussie man got caught in middle of online dating scam
'I thought it was going to get me out of a bind if you like and in fact it put me in the biggest bind of my life,' she said.
She thought she'd been matched with a man named Walter Hayes – but he wasn't real. The man in the photos isn't in on the scam and could also be a victim.
'I actually didn't want to lend him the money initially and he just melted me to just believe that he was the man for me,' Jane said.
READ MORE:Detective hunting crooks behind increasingly sophisticated phone scams
The scammer began extracting money from Jane by feeding her sob stories.
'The container slipped off the stacking and rolled onto the cargo men.
Two of them are dead,' he said in an email.
READ MORE:Nurse's 'naive romanticism' costs her $100,000 in cruel love scam
'I feel responsible for this. I feel I need to do something for their families to lessen the pain.'
Within just three months - Jane had handed over every cent she had.
'$500,000 which was the difference of me being able to maybe give up my work a little bit sooner and maybe set things up for me to have an income at the end of my nursing,' Jane said.
'I borrowed money too from two unsecure lenders as well and I also re-mortgaged my unit to get more.'
But it was when he asked Jane to sell her unit – that she realised she'd been duped.
'I felt sick I couldn't stop crying. I sat in a park and one of the first people I rang was the bank in the hope that I wasn't going to lose absolutely everything and then I felt ashamed. The worst part was having to tell my family,' she said.
A 74-year-old grandmother was also played.
She thought she was falling in love, but the man was a fraud.
'His name was Al,' the woman said.
'He sent me a photograph very good looking very well dressed.'
Like Jane's fake lover, police said the person in the photos isn't in on the scam.
'Stuff in my life had happened where I was vulnerable, emotionally vulnerable and I did it, I sent him the money,' she said.
In emails the scammer said: 'Dear my heart robber, another night without you by my side.'
And, 'good night from UK and good morning in Australia my love'.
'I love you so much. Forever that is,' before signing off with details on how to transfer him money.
'It was for him to get to Portugal to see his mum that was the first instance,' the elderly victim said.
'The first time I became suss was probably down the track, 12 months at least I think, and I had to transfer some money to a bank in Switzerland.'
Pictures Of Romance Scammers
'How much money did you lose?' I asked.
'I think it would probably be between $150,000 to $170,000,' she responded.
Detective Acting Inspector Steven Peroni said more than $7 million has been stolen by the alleged scam syndicate that uses romance, business and email scams to rob Aussies online.
'The vast majority of it has travelled off shore. We don't know exactly to which country but we've identified Nigeria as a country where a lot of these funds have been sent to,' Detective Acting Inspector Peroni said.
Strike Force Cocci was launched in March last year to take down the Australian arm of the alleged scam syndicate.
Police allege this week they've nabbed the middlemen of the operation.
Detectives said 50 victims across Australia have been left out of pocket.
'It started with a post it note placed on a detective's desk saying can you please give this person a ring she believe she's been the victim of a fraud. From there it snowballed to the job that we have now with 25 arrests and 136 charges,' Detective Acting Inspector Peroni said.
Police raided several homes and arrested the final five men who detectives allege were money mules helping to move the cash off shore.
'It not me, it can't be me,' one of the accused said.
'I don't know what this about,' another said.
One of the accused is Etinosa Eriyo who won a bronze medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Paraplegic Games in Melbourne.
'So far we've recovered over half a million dollars that we've returned to victims,' Detective Acting Inspector Peroni said.
New South Wales Police intelligence will now be shared with Interpol in the hope more can be done to recover what's been lost.
'The best weapon we have in this, is an educated community who is aware of these scams and to report them to police at the earliest opportunity,' Detective Acting Inspector Peroni said.
For more information on scams visit:https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/
3 Nigerian Caught In Dating Scamming In Usa Youtube
To report a scam contact police.