LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — A wide-ranging fraud and money laundering scheme borne out of the well-known Nigerian prince email scams has taken a big hit after a nearly 3-year FBI investigation.
A 252-count federal grand jury indictment unsealed Thursday charged 80 people from around the world, including 11 arrested in Southern California, with participating in a massive conspiracy to steal millions through fraud schemes and launder the money through a Los Angeles-based network. The FBI called it one of the largest internet fraud schemes the agency has ever seen.
The conspiracy involved mostly Nigerian nationals. Two of the defendants named in the indictment were already in federal custody on other charges, six are fugitives believed to be in the United States and the rest are believed to be abroad, with most of them in Nigeria.
According to the criminal complaint, the defendants targeted victims in the U.S. and across the globe in romance scams and with fake emails from known businesses, all in an effort to get money sent under false pretenses. The FBI says the schemes resulted in the fraudulent transfer of at least $6 million.
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Dang...I was all set to collect the promised gazillions too.
ReplyDeleteI'll be cashing my check later today. I sure hope that my M&T Bank branch has $1,422,568 in the vault. Think I should call ahead?
ReplyDeleteAmerica already fell for the Kenyan Prince scheme, Nigerians are a little late
ReplyDeleteI hope the Prince I am related to don't get into trouble with this, he was going to wire millions to my bank account this past Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteThe scariest thing is people actually fall for this crap and other too good to be true email and telemarketing scams. How stupid can you be ?
ReplyDeleteNorthwest Woodsman: I love 9:34’s comment. Right on the money.
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