Prosecution of Nigerian for Advance Fee fraud

Red Dwarf · **Joined:** Tue Jun 27, 2006 2:01 am **Posts:** 9227

FEDERAL JURY FINDS NIGERIAN CITIZEN GUILTY OF CHARGES RELATED TO INTERNET “ADVANCE FEE” FRAUD SCHEME

United States Attorney's Office District of Connecticut - Press Release - February 16, 2010

Refer to http://www.justice.gov/usao/ct/Press2010/20100216-2.html

OKPAKO MIKE DIAMREYAN, 31, a citizen of Nigeria - guilty on 3 counts of wire fraud stemming from an alleged “advance fee” scam.

Judge Hall has scheduled sentencing for May 7, 2010, at which time DIAMREYAN faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years and a fine of up to $250,000, on each count.

You just gotta love his aliases:

spamislame · **Joined:** Tue May 09, 2006 9:18 am **Posts:** 5022

Now there's a story you unfortunately don't see every day.

I should do some digging. I'm pretty certain I must have heard from each of his aliases.

SiL

meep · **Joined:** Thu Apr 05, 2007 4:10 pm **Posts:** 2777

good find. First time I had read this one.

AlphaCentauri · **Joined:** Thu Mar 01, 2007 3:01 am **Posts:** 5915

oh, it gets better!

The press release doesn't say how they caught him. But I found a court document on line:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/30242281/Unit ... reyan-D-Ct

Over a ten year period, he used the same Yahoo address to carry out the scams that he'd used on his visa application. He also used the same phone number to contact victims and to call Western Union, and he had his wife pick up the money at W.U. She didn't know what he'd been doing and told all when questioned.

spamislame · **Joined:** Tue May 09, 2006 9:18 am **Posts:** 5022

Now see that's actually sort of disappointing news, because obviously this guy was an utter moron.

Still very good news, but it's always this low-hanging fruit that makes the headlines.

SiL

HansTheBlueFrog · **Joined:** Wed Feb 04, 2009 3:23 pm **Posts:** 342

You have to love these guys. They are always good for a laugh.

Hans

meep · **Joined:** Thu Apr 05, 2007 4:10 pm **Posts:** 2777

Bob McMillan of IDG News posted a recent story:

Nigerian Advance-fee Scammer Gets 12 Years

...

Quote:

Okpako Mike Diamreyan, 31, was sentenced to 151 months of prison Wednesday by United States District Judge Janet Hall in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Diamreyan made more than US$1.3 million in a scam that suckered 67 victims between 2004 to 2009, prosecutors said. This type of fraud, called an advance-fee scam, was the number-one type of Internet fraud in 2009, according to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Last year, advance-fee fraud accounted for nearly 17 percent of the Internet fraud logged by the FBI.

...

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Prosecution of Nigerian for Advance Fee fraud

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