A court in Mississippi condemned three Nigerians to 235 years in prison for the conducttreatment online scams that brought them tens of millions of dollars in profits.
Oladimeji Seun Ayelotan, 30, was jailed for 95 years, while accomplices Rasaq Aderoju Raheem, 31, got 115 years and Femi Alexander Mewase, 45, got 25 years. The judges found them guilty of mail scam, theft identity, credit card fraud and for theft of government property.
Ayelotan and Raheem were also found guilty of conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering, which explains their biggest penalties. All three of them were members of a 21 gang who worked in Nigeria and the United States. Twelve of them have already admitted their guilt.
Based on their testimonies, the gang had been operating since 2001 and ran various projects για να εξαπατήσει το κοινό. Ένα από αυτά τα projects ήταν και οι “ρομαντικές απάτες.” Οι κατηγορούμενοι έβρισκαν θύματα που ένιωθαν μοναξιά και τους έπειθαν να πληρώσουν αεροπορικά εισιτήρια, ή ιατρικά έξοδα για να συναντηθούν. Φυσικά κανείς δεν εμφανιζόταν στο appointment...
Such scams seem to be impressively successful. Last year a British man was cheated and paid 150.000 dollars and a British lost 1,6 million dollars over a period of ten months.
The gang used Western Union and MoneyGram to get the money or sell goods bought with stolen credit and debit cards in countries that could be sold with much more money.
The group was arrested by South African police in a common business with Homeland Security and Immigration investigators from US Customs and the US Postal Inspection Service.
According to the International Police Organization (Interpol), West African fraudsters have managed to earn over 3 billions of dollars from online scams in the last three years. The international police said that the reason why Nigeria is the hive of online crime is because of the low employment prospects in the country for computer specialists.
