Six Nigerians Linked To $6 Million Scam In The US
The United States authorities on Tuesday announced that it has uncovered a six million online scam deal involving six Nigerians.
This was disclosed in a statement signed by the U.S. treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, and posted on the Treasury Department website on Tuesday.
“Today, in a coordinated action with the U.S. Department of Justice, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took action against six Nigerian nationals for conducting an elaborate scheme to steal over six million dollars from victims across the United States,” read the statement.
“The individuals designated today targeted U.S. businesses and individuals through deceptive global threats known as business email compromise (BEC) and romance fraud. American citizens lost over $6,000,000 due to these individuals’ BEC fraud schemes, in which they impersonated business executives and requested and received wire transfers from legitimate business accounts.
“Money was also stolen from innocent Americans by romance fraud, in which the designees masqueraded as affectionate partners to gain trust from victims,” the official added.
The names of these 6 Nigerians who were disclosed by the office of Foreign Assets Control and are alleged to have committed those cyber-crimes include, Nnamdi Orson, Kayode Biola Ayorinde, Ogunshakin Alex Afolabi, Okpoh Felix Osilama, Olorunyomi Michael and Uzuh Richard Izuchukwu.
The US authorities vowed to use all of the tools at its disposal to defend the American people and businesses from malign actors that seek to target them, including cyber-enabled actors who prey on vulnerable Americans and businesses.
The alleged fraudulent acts were committed between between 2015 and 2017, according to the statement.
Thelagostimes recalls that a Nigerian social media celebrity, Hushpuppi, was recently arrested in Dubai by Interpol for alleged cyber fraud. Media reports said American officials were pushing for his extradition to the United States because the majority of those he defrauded are American citizens.
