Authorities in Texas have arrested 11 romance scammers tied to an organised crime syndicate operating out of Nigeria, the US Department of Justice has announced.
The 11 defendants, all arrested during a large-scale operation on Wednesday, September 22nd 2021, have been charged with a variety of crimes related to romance fraud, including wire fraud and money laundering crimes.
Romance fraud has been on the rise since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with many turning to online dating websites to find love. And this network of criminals operating in North Texas were targeting elderly victims on sites including ChristianMingle, Match and PlentyOfFish.
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The romance scams themselves were no different to how most romance scammers work. The crooks located victims on dating websites and began to build online relationships with them. The crooks then moved the conversations away from dating websites and onto social media, and then the urgent and emotional requests for money began.
The crooks would claim they urgently needed money to pay debts or travel overseas, or in some cases claim they needed it to pay inheritance tax.
It is estimated the gang of crooks managed to siphon hundreds of thousands of dollars from their victims over the course of the online relationships.
The gang members arrested and indicted in Northern District of Texas include –
– David Animashaun, 38 – arrested in Dallas–Fort Worth, charged with wire fraud conspiracy
– Oluwalobamise Michael Moses, 40 – arrested in Dallas–Fort Worth, charged with wire fraud conspiracy
– Irabor Fatarr Musa, 51 – arrested in the Eastern District of Texas, charged by the Northern District of Texas with wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy
– Ijeoma Okoro, 31 – arrested in Dallas–Fort Worth, charged with wire fraud conspiracy fraud, money laundering conspiracy
– Chukwemeka Orji, 36 – arrested in Dallas–Fort Worth, charged with wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy
– Emanuel Stanley Orji, 35 – arrested in Dallas–Fort Worth, charged with wire fraud conspiracy
– Frederick Orji, 37 – arrested in Dallas, charged with wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy
– Uwadiale Esezobor, 36 – arrested in Lubbock, charged with mail & wire fraud conspiracy
– Victor Idowu, 36 – arrested in Los Angeles, charged with mail & wire fraud conspiracy
– Afeez Abiola Alao, 37 – charged with wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy
– Ambrose Sunday Ohide, 47 – charged with wire fraud conspiracy
On the same day, a further 23 individuals tied to the same criminal network were also indicted in Eastern District of Texas for a variety of other cyber-crimes.
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While romance scams can differ greatly in their specifics, they are always easy to spot if you know what you’re looking for. Nearly every romance scam will rely on building up a relationship online with a victim before then trying to persuade the victim to send money, without having met in person first.
As such, the most important advice to avoiding romance scams is always the same. Never send money to people you have never met in person. We have more details on how romance scams work and how you can avoid them in our article here.
If convicted, the defendants could face up 20 years in federal prison on the wire fraud conspiracy counts and up to 10 years in federal prison on the money laundering conspiracy counts.
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