Crime News
Nigerian Scammer Defrauded American Lady He Met On Dating Site Of N52.5 Million
May 1st, 2014 – Nigerian Fraudster Duped American Woman He Met On Dating Site Of N52.5 Million
The Special Fraud Unit of the Nigeria Police Force, Ikoyi, Lagos, has arrested a 29-year-old man, Henry Ogu, for allegedly defrauding an American citizen (name withheld) of N52.5m ($350000).
His accomplice, 42-year-old Yunusa Okonkwo, was also arrested in connection with the fraud.
A statement by the SFU Police Public Relations Officer DSP Ngozi Isintume-Agu, said the unit had received a petition via email from Ogu’s victims.
It read, “The victim, a US citizen resident in New Jersey, alleged that sometime in April 2013, she met Ogu on a dating site and both started a relationship which lasted for months until the suspect manipulated and made her to believe that he was in financial trouble in Nigeria.
“She further stated that she sent $350,000.00 to the two account numbers that Ogu provided. The account numbers were Skye Bank Account Number 36204796 and Ecobank account No. 04087350 belonging to Faneece Business Services International.”
Police investigation reportedly revealed that the account belonged to Okonkwo of No. A1 Giwa Road, U/Muazu, Kaduna, where he was subsequently arrested. Upon his arrest, Okonkwo was said to have led police detectives to apprehend Ogu, the principal suspect.
The statement added that Okonkwo, a native of Amuri Nkanu West LGA of Enugu State, was a patent medicine dealer and also ran a Bureau De Change.
It said, “Okonkwo confessed that he was the account holder of Faneece Business Services International and admitted that he had provided his two bank accounts for the illicit transactions.
“He also said Ogu had provided him with his account number, where he transferred the money after converting it to naira. He gave Ogu’s account details as Diamond Bank account No. 0021206871 with account name Raydeus Synergy Nigeria Limited.
“Okonkwo added that he had deducted his commission of N2 per dollar before paying the money to Ogu.”
A native of Amafor – Ishingwa Umuahia, Abia State, Ogu allegedly claimed to be one of the Directors of Raydeus Synergy Nigeria Limited. He was said to have confessed to the alleged crime; he had sent Okonkwo’s account details to the victim who in turn paid the sum of $295,000.00 into the account which Okonkwo converted to naira before paying into his Diamond Bank account.
Ogu also corroborated the victim’s statement that they had met on a dating site in January 2013 and started communicating via e-mails.
The statement said, “Ogu confessed that he deceived the victim into believing that he wanted to marry her, but was stranded in Nigeria and needed financial assistance. He said that he had spent all the money; N9m was used to purchase a heavy duty generator which has been recovered by the police. He had also purchased a plot of land for N800,000 along the Lagos – Ibadan Expressway. A cash sum of N2m was also recovered from him.
“Investigation is ongoing. Effort is being intensified towards the recovery of the remaining money that was fraudulently obtained from the complainant or its proceeds. Suspects will be charged to court to serve as a deterrent to others.
“The Commissioner of Police, SFU, Mr. Umar Idris, uses this medium to reassure the public of the Unit’s commitment to fight internet fraudsters and advises that such cases should be promptly reported to the unit.”
[By Punch Metro]
Kingsley oKOYE
May 1, 2014 at 4:54 AM
That gullible america deserves what she got
Nk Gwarzo
May 1, 2014 at 6:01 AM
Ah! when will this shameless **** people for once reason and stop thinking of a short cut to success. ****s don’t you realise that you are tarnishing the image of our country and make a honest living instead.
The truth is bitter but these guys are the reason why Nigerians are regarded as criminals,you find them into drugs, fighting in the club, Duping people and stealing abroad.
Whenever i come across a piece saying a Nigerian was arrested for anything, the first thing that comes to my mind is Oh! these BLACK SHEEP(****s) have done it again.
Too much tin
May 1, 2014 at 6:43 AM
HMMM NIGERIANS AND EVIL SHA……THATS IS WHY WHEN I TELL PEOPLE AM A NIGERIAN,THAT REACTION I GET IS ALWAYS MOSTLY EMBARRASSING HERE,NOW I CLAIM TOGOLESE BUT IN MY MIND AM A NIGERIAN,NIGERIA,I CARRY YANSH FOR UNA O.
mina jim
May 1, 2014 at 7:10 AM
**** again doing what they are good @.Thank God he was caught. Gigolo as old as u are trying to live off women.I wonder why u pple don’t even tink of hereafter anymore.
Aka Ikenga
May 1, 2014 at 7:49 AM
Have the Special Fraud Unite and EFCC recovered all the money Americans , Asians and Europeans are duping Nigeria Government and Nigerians through abandoned contracts and fake items supply ???????
selfmade
May 1, 2014 at 9:55 AM
police waiting be una own there or na your papa money
adunni
May 1, 2014 at 10:59 AM
I beg free dem joor
OLAOSEBIKA
May 1, 2014 at 12:05 PM
The South Eastern Nigerian tribes are a cursed race. The Biafran ear should have saparated the rest of us from these criminals called ****s. It does seem an average **** person is geneologically born to commit crime or engage in fraudulent business for subsistence. This collosal criminal tendecies of the **** people doesn’t exist in any Nigerian tribe. Why is the **** man seen as a potential criminal first until he proves otherwise.? The South Eastern Nigerian tribes should appropriately be refered to as Biafrans and not Nigerian cos the collateral damage they cause to the common existence of Nigerian is unquantifiable. The corporate damage to the Nigerian interest worldwide is too humiliating and disgraceful to say the least, yet they are identified as Nigerians without qualifying who really they are. When an **** man succeeds in any business albeit through fraudulent means, he quickly identifies with his state of origin and even his local government and even so much to his family clan. If he is arrested for fraudulent business outside the shores of Nigeria, he sorts to hide his state of origin and his local governments but claims to be Lagosian. The current conference ongoing in Abuja should endeavour to discuss our collective co-existence in Nigeria with these criminal gangs among us called the ****s.
Aka Ikenga
May 1, 2014 at 6:46 PM
The ****s do everything but they dont kill human beings and sell human body parts which is the current business of your highly righteous ******s. *** buruku
power 56
May 1, 2014 at 1:03 PM
abeg make them live they guy alone joor.. he thief pass una wey hold am . i mean police and leaders una be the top thief .. american deserve it joor ,, make una free the guy before i open my eyes …fucking people …all the money recovered from abacha and ibori where is it.. ?
dim
May 1, 2014 at 1:16 PM
olasebikan you must be an ***** .. why are you talking as if you are born without sin or you are not a thief too or ****** dont scam too.. when these cases come out dont bring racist to it because we all are same just that you never had a change to it .. why not talk or insult our leader because if not for them i dont think there will be scammers in Nigeria, WE even has to thank God for them because if not for scam alot of youth in Nigeria would have been arm robbers. believe no body go even dey waka for day time ,. stop tribalism here please will all are one Nigerian
OLAOSEBIKAN
May 1, 2014 at 4:11 PM
Dim you seem to be talking as if only your people are the inhabitants of this country called Nigeria, If politicians are to be blamed for our predicaments must it be your Igbo tribe to take to scam, armed robbery and fraud to allert the rest of us tgat we are suffering, why is the Igbo tribe in the forefront of criminal activities not only in Nigeria but everywhere else across West Africa and across the Atlantic. Why!
Your response to this criminal incident is expected because all Igbos think alike when it comes to criminality. No Igbo man is ever ashamed to be identified with crime. Criminality is in the natural make-up of all Igbos so instead of Igbos condemning a fellow Igbo criminal; you all rally behind him and encourage him to do more because you all have the same criminal orientations. There are more than 350 ethnic groups in Nigeria, why is the Igbo tribe more susceptible to commiting crime than the rest put together, do the Igbos ask themselves very simple questions of why the Igbo young man is 60-80% more likely to be involved in armed robbery, drug courrier, credit card scammer, 419 advance fee fraud, fake drug imports, kidnappers for ransome etc. Amazing how Igbos have failed to tackle the worrying cancerous criminal menace among their youth but choose to equalise their criminal activities with othe tribes by pointing fingers at others. How does that stop the unenviable labelling of Igbo people as criminals which ofcourse they are. The rest of us will heave a sigh of releif when someday the Igbo man will require entry visa to enter Lagos and any Yoruba land in whole South Western Nigeria; when that happens hopefully as it did in old USSR & Yugoslavia and is gradually taking shape in Ukrain, there’ll be no more lumping everyone of us together as Igbo criminals.
consort
May 1, 2014 at 3:22 PM
Times have changed.. Nafin comes easy nw a days. Xo my people, shine una eyes nd do wat u must oo
princessugobabe
May 1, 2014 at 7:10 PM
Olaosebika;
After reading you posting, it was easy for me to decipher that you are either an illiterate, not lettered, half baked literate and that your education did not help you become a responsible person afterall. If you are educated, (and I doubt very much you are educated) you wont write the way you wrote. I live in the most populated city in the world–New York City, where all sorts of crimes are committed. I could tell you with exactitude and without a cobweb of doubt or equivocation that the ******s are in the forefront and in majority of all the credit card frauds, cocaine smuggling committed by Nigerians in this city and all over the United States. As a practicing journalist here in the United Sates, I have been fortunate or should I say unfortunate to have seen a dismal list of most Nigerian criminals arrested, indicted or given long term imprisonment by law enforcement agents in this country. I must say that very few are of **** descent. Majority are ******. Even the law enforcement agents know them by their names. Very rarely do you come across ****s or people of other ethnic groups. If you do or are privileged to interview any **** or people of other ethnic groups among this ignoble group,(most of whom are usually fluent in ******) they will narrate how their relationship with ******s led them into this nefarious crimes. I have reported on cases that are not only mind boggling but eye popping. The records are there for anyone like you to see. For starters, go on internet and search for NIGERIAN CRIMINALS, CONVICTED NIGERIAN DRUG RUNNERS OR NIGERIAN CREDIT CARD FRAUDSTERS and see the names you get. You need go no further before the results appear right there in your face. You are Yoruba and I am assuming that you can tell where they are from looking at their names. Better yet try F.B.I. or other major city police websites. What you wrote may tempt me to create a quick blog to not only showcase the numbers for the world nay Nigerians to see but prove deceitful people like you all wrong.
But will this shameful list or my experience in reporting make me think or form a parochial view that all ******s or even all Americans are criminals. NO. NEVER! I have met the very best among ******s and I have also seen the worst amongst them too. Every group has it fair share of crimes and criminals. Even Americans and British do have their own fair share of criminals. My education teaches me NEVER to tar a race or ethnic group with one brush of criminality or to stigmatize anyone. Please be enlightened and grow up. Grow out of this xenophobic cocoon or mentality of narrow mindedness and parochialism before it is too late!
OLAOSEBIKAN
May 2, 2014 at 1:44 AM
Princessugobabe, you are shameless lier, equalising criminality is the stock in trade of fraudulent people like you. That is exactly what you do best to disprove and disagree on every crime that involves your tribe. It is no longer a secret your tribe from Eastern Nigeria are the foremost criminals in Nigeria and accross West African countries especially in Togo and Ghana where several thousands of your compatriots are roaming the streets jobless and robbing innocent people everyday. Prince, you must be telling a lie to call yourself a journalist, many ****s like you hide behind a seming legitimate livelihood to do other dubious things like your people from the East do to decieve others. Take it or leave it the ****s are the foremost criminals in Nigeria and accross West African countries, statistically. All the robberies that take place in Lagos and across South Western Nigeria have largely your people’s involvement in it. South Eastern Nigerian tribes are geneologically fraudulent people.
ify
May 1, 2014 at 6:24 PM
naija gist i thought u people said any person who did nt generalise his or her comment instead base it on any tribe such will nt be posted and now u ve stoped or is it becos they are abusing d *** now dat u allow it?.i knw all d horrow forest was nt discoverd in *** land and also d human parts dealers discovered of late .God will jurge all acc to our deed
lily
May 1, 2014 at 6:52 PM
@olaosebikan…you are very right.****s everytime.Gosh!cant you ppl stop disgracing us?u just want to make it quick.i tire for una o.Na only **** dey this country?pls stop embarrassing Nigerians abeg.gosh!
shola
May 1, 2014 at 8:18 PM
guy stop calling **** i am not **** man i am but will all are Nigerian.. @olaosebikan stop all this let us fight for our nation please ,, this is why we dont grow as one nation…i wish i was not a Nigerian …
Joe
May 1, 2014 at 9:29 PM
U police ar d best in dis….free dem let go pls…….
OLAOSEBIKAN
May 2, 2014 at 1:51 AM
Princessugobabe, you are shameless lier, equalising criminality is the stock in trade of fraudulent people like you. That is exactly what you do best to disprove and disagree on every crime that involves your tribe. It is no longer a secret your tribe from Eastern Nigeria are the foremost criminals in Nigeria and accross West African countries especially in Togo and Ghana where several thousands of your compatriots are roaming the streets jobless and robbing innocent people everyday. Prince, you must be telling a lie to call yourself a journalist, many ****s like you hide behind a seming legitimate livelihood to do other dubious things like your people from the East do to decieve others. Take it or leave it the ****s are the foremost criminals in Nigeria and accross West African countries, statistically. All the robberies that take place in Lagos and across South Western Nigeria have largely your people’s involvement in it. South Eastern Nigerian tribes are geneologically fraudulent people.
Mon
May 2, 2014 at 3:10 AM
No doubt in my mind that you must have had a problem with one or two persons of the tribe you are mentioning. It will be nice for you to go and settle with him/her and stop this your ranting that is exposing your *********.
Peace J
January 27, 2015 at 10:45 PM
pls mr ola stop being childish, i believe u are a grown man think like one. dis site i believe is not a place to judge ethnic group or a particular sect but is where we reason together an see how we can be a good ambassdor to our country nigeria. weather good or bad you can not deny ur self of being a nigerian. there is no country or tribe without a crime. in the crime world and list no country or tribe you will not see at least one person so what are we talking about.let stop all dis trash and face reality. nobody is a saint one way or the other you must have committed too is it bcos no one saw you, pls stop being bias and full of hatered to a particular tribe u dnt know who will be of help to you and family is a piece of advise.