Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,
EFCC, have arrested a suspected impersonator posing as the former Executive
Chairman of the Commission, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde.
The suspect, Promise Tochi Nwalozie was arrested in Port
Harcourt, Rivers State, in a sting operation that yielded the arrest of six
other internet fraudsters. One of the fraudsters, Onukagba Uche Prosper, is a
youth corps member serving in the Tai Local Government Area of Rivers State.
Nwalozie was using the identity of Lamorde to send scam
mails to foreigners, mostly Europeans and Americans and in the process extorted
sizeable amount of foreign currencies from them. His weapon of fraudulent
interaction with his victims was a fake electronic copy of the identity card of
the former EFCC's boss. Besides, he was also posing as Barrister Peter Jackson,
a spurious lawyer working with the National Judicial Council, NJC in Nigeria.
As a lawyer, he was defrauding his victims by assuring them that he would help
in the recovery of money lost to different Nigerian cyber fraudsters. To do
this, Jackson was collecting various sums of money as service charges from his
victims. Some of his victims are: Betty. G. E, an American and Georgina M, an
Australian.
In addition to all these, Nwalozie had multifarious
electronic scam documents in various folders in his e-mail box, ostensibly for
the payment of a spurious N12,500,000.00( Twelve Million, Five Hundred Thousand
Naira only) to one Robert Giese, an American, by the "Office of the Presidency,
Federal Republic of Nigeria, Abuja". To further deceive Giese, he swore to
a fictitious " Affidavit Of Claim of Federal High Court of Nigeria"
deposed to by a fake Justice Ibrahim Auta, OFR, on behalf of Giese. The
"Affidavit" was signed by a former Attorney General and Minister of
Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke. To achieve his fraudulent schemes, he had
several e-mail addresses such assirpeterjackson@gmail.com,promisenwalozie@gmail.com,
bigenoughforcare@gmail.com among others.
Aside Prosper, (youth corps member), five other internet
scammers were arrested in the sting operation and they are: Onuoha Akachukwu
Danhessy; Ohaji Ujunwa Raymond, a.k.a Francis Ray Emar; Henry Onyebuchi
Ogbonna; Eboh Emeka Emmanuel and Nwaorgu Chidi Precious. Prosper was involved in
online dating scam, also known as romance scam. Through the scam, he defrauded
unsuspecting foreign widows, mostly from Europe and America. His scam identity
was Mark Fest, a United States soldier serving in Bulgaria. To perfect his
fraudulent schemes, he secured a " business relationship" with one of
the arrested fraudsters, Onuoha Akachukwu Danhessy, his cousin.
Danhessy was serving as an intermediary between him and one
H. Macaulay, a Nigerian undergraduate at the Medical University, Varna,
Bulgaria who was assisting him to collect and send proceeds of their
criminality to Nigeria, through Western Union and Money Gram money . All the
three victims of Prosper are Philippinos: Ivy P. S, ( $2,000); Mel R.( 800
Pound Sterling) and Lolita T. Danhessy has other ingenious schemes to his
credit. In his romance scam, he had reportedly raked in a total sum of $50,000(
Fifty Thousand United States Dollar) from Maria J. Al, an American that he
promised to marry.
Ohaji Ujunwa Raymond a.k.a Francis Ray Emar is another
suspected impersonator who was sending scam e-mails to his victims in Europe
and America in the name of Abubakar Malami (SAN), Attorney General and Minister
of Justice and Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, Minister of Finance. One of his victims,
Georgina M, an Australian, lost $1,500( One Thousand, Five Hundred Dollars) to
him. Other suspected scammers are Henry Onyebuchi Ogbonna, a member of a
syndicate serving as a cashier to his group members, Eboh Emeka Emmanuel,
another romance scammer that duped a Dubai- based Philippino: E. F. Aquino of
N500,000( Five Hundred Thousand Naira only) and Nwaorgu Chidi Precious, another
accessory to romance scam and cashier to Nwalozie.
All the suspects are in EFCC custody and would be charged to court soon.
1 Comments
Wow, good information
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