A court in Mississippi condemned three Nigerians in 235 years of imprisonment for online scam (electronic scams) that earned them tens of millions of dollars.
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 ID cardς, απάτες με πιστωτικές cards and for theft of state 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.
According to their testimonies, the gang has been operating since 2001 and ran various projects to deceive the public. One of these projects was the "romantic scams." Defendants found victims who felt lonely and persuaded them to pay for airfare, or medical expenses to meet. Of course no one showed up for the date…
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 was using her Western Union and MoneyGram to receive the money, or sold goods purchased with stolen credit and debit cards in countries where they could be sold for much more money.
Η ομάδα συνελήφθη από τη νοτιοαφρικανική αστυνομία σε μια κοινή επιχείρηση με τους researchers εσωτερικής ασφάλειας και μετανάστευσης των τελωνείων των ΗΠΑ αλλά και την υπηρεσία ταχυδρομικών επιθεωρήσεων των ΗΠΑ.
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.
