RSN™ NEWS: Nigerian Scammers Arrested

2 Nigerian Yahoo-Boys, 6 Others Arrested For Stealing $15 Million From US Firms

Two Nigerian suspected internet fraudsters and their international partners have been arrested for stealing millions of dollars from US Firms.

Authorities said eight people have been arrested for their alleged roles in an Africa-based cyber conspiracy that U.S. law enforcement officials say defrauded companies and citizens of millions of dollars.

Five of the defendants – a Mexican, two Americans, a Ghanaian and a Nigerian – were arrested in the U.S., the Justice Department said. The other three – two Ghanaians and a Nigerian – were arrested outside the U.S. and were being held pending extradition.

The arrests were made as part of the department’s efforts to fight schemes to intercept wire transfers from businesses and individuals.

“The defendants allegedly unleashed a barrage of international fraudFraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain (money or other assets), or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compensation) or criminal law (e.g., a fraud perpetrator may be prosecuted and imprisoned by governmental authorities), or it may cause no loss of money, property, or legal right but still be an element of another civil or criminal wrong. The purpose of fraud may be monetary gain or other benefits, for example by obtaining a passport, travel document, or driver's license, or mortgage fraud, where the perpetrator may attempt to qualify for a mortgage by way of false statements. A fraud can also be a hoax, which is a distinct concept that involves deliberate deception without the intention of gain or of materially damaging or depriving a victim. schemes that targeted United States businesses and individuals, robbing them to the tune of approximately $15 million dollars,” said Acting Assistant Attorney-General John Cronan.

The indictments are part of Operation Keyboard Warrior, a recently announced effort coordinated by the U.S. and international law enforcement to disrupt online frauds perpetrated from Africa.

The Africa-based co-conspirators committed a series of intrusions into the servers and email systems of a Memphis-based real estate company in 2017, according to the indictment.

The defendants were able to use spoofed email addresses and other anonymization techniques to identify large financial transactions and initiated fraudulent email correspondence with relevant business parties.

They then redirected closing funds for real estate transactions to destinations in Africa. The indictment includes charges related to wire fraud, money launderingMoney laundering Money laundering is the illegal process of concealing the origins of money obtained illegally by passing it through a complex sequence of banking transfers or commercial transactions. Money laundering can be done through various mediums, leveraging a variety of payment vehicles, people and institutions., computer fraud and identity fraud.

Some of the Africa-based defendants are also charged with operating romance scamsScams A Scam is a confidence trick - a crime -  is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust through deception. Scams or confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, irresponsibility, or greed and exploiting that. Researchers have defined confidence tricks as "a distinctive species of fraudulent conduct ... intending to further voluntary exchanges that are not mutually beneficial", as they "benefit con operators ('con men' - criminals) at the expense of their victims (the 'marks')". A scam is a crime even if no money was lost., fraudulent-check scams, gold-buying scams and credit card scamsCredit Card Scams Scam callers pretending to represent banks and credit card companies use a variety of tactics, such as bogus fraud alerts or promises of lowered interest rates, to steal your personal information and your credit..