They have been charged with
operating romance scams, fraudulent check scams, gold-buying scams and credit
card scams.
Two Nigerians have been
arrested wiith six other people in connection to their alleged roles in
international fraud schemes that targeted United States businesses and
individuals to the tune of $15 million.
According to indictments
disclosed by the Acting Assistant Attorney-General of the US Department of
Justice, John Cronan, charges brought against the suspects are related to wire
fraud, money laundering, computer fraud and identity fraud.
The Nigerians, alongside
three Ghanaians, two Americans and a Mexican, allegedly formed a fraud ring
that targeted victims with internet related intrusions.
Cronan said, "The
defendants allegedly unleashed a barrage of international fraud schemes that
targeted US businesses and individuals, robbing them to the tune of
approximately 15 million dollars."
According to a report by
News Agency of Nigeria, the suspects allegedly used spoofed email addresses and
other anonymisation techniques to identify large financial transactions and
initiated fraudulent email correspondence with relevant business parties. This
led to the redirection of closing funds for real estate transactions to
destinations in Africa.
Of all six suspects, three
- two Ghanaians and a Nigerian - were arrested outside of the US as they await
extradition while the other 5 were arrested in the US.
According to the
indictment, the Africa-based suspects committed a series of intrusions into the
servers and email systems of a Memphis-based real estate company in 2017. Some
of them are also charged with operating romance scams, fraudulent check scams,
gold-buying scams and credit card scams.
The indictment of the eight
suspects is part of Operation Keyboard Warrior coordinated by the US and
international law enforcement agencies to disrupt online frauds perpetrated
from Africa.
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