Hampshire Police Arrest Five Men And A Woman

Hampshire, U.K. police arrest five men and a woman in connection with alleged 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. involving users of Match.com

From the Guardian UK

The Guardian, Friday 21 February 2014 11.59 EST

The alleged scamScam 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. involved women being asked to hand over significant amounts of money after meeting men on the Match.com dating website.

Five men and a woman have been charged in connection with an alleged scam involving an internet dating site.

Hampshire police arrested the suspects following a “lengthy investigation” into the alleged fraud, which involved women being asked to give “significant” amounts of money after meeting men on the Match.com site.

Detective Constable Darrin Carey said: “These charges come following a lengthy investigation into an alleged scam where women are asked to hand over significant amounts of cash after meeting men on the Match.com dating website. Alleged victims in this case are from the Basingstoke area, across Hampshire and England. If you have any information which may assist this investigation, please contact me on 101.”

The suspects charged with conspiracy to commit fraud are Emmanuel Oko, 29, of Waverley Grove, Southsea, Hampshire; Brooke Boston, 28, of Chelsea Road, Southsea; Monty Emu, 28, of Frencham Road, Southsea; Eberechi Ekpo, 26, of Adair Road, Southsea; Chukwuka Ugwu, 28, of Somers Road, Southsea, and Adewunmi Nusi, 26, of Bomford Close, Hermitage, Berkshire. They are all due to appear later at Basingstoke magistrates court.

Match.com offers the following safety advice: “Criminals should not get away with scams whether on dating sites, over the internet or in any walk of life. While the authorities and dating sites work closely together to ensure a safe environment on the internet, we encourage everyone to apply the same caution when meeting people online as they would meeting through friends or in a bar.

“Never give money to anyone just as you would never give money to someone you recently met in a pub or cafe. Don’t share personal contact details off the site. If in doubt, use the highly visible ‘report a concern’ button which flags issues to our care team.”