April 02, 2004

Scammer in the Slammer

Has someone in Nigeria specially chosen to entrust you with millions of dollars or pounds, because they know you are honest? Are they willing to launder their hard-earned money through your bank account to keep it out of the hands of an unscrupulous government? Do they just need your bank details and you will get to keep a substantial percentage, just for being a good neighbour? Oh, and then there's an unexpected problem and they just need a little cash to facilitate freeing up the money in Africa?

In at least one of those cases, that someone was Peter Ewalefoh Okoeguale. He may not have fooled you, but he did con thousands of pounds out of victims. He wasn't in Nigeria. He was in the UK and Ireland. It was as he was about to catch the ferry from North Wales to the Irish Republic that he was caught.

According to the Press Association, "North Wales Police said that discs found on Okoeguale contained thousands of e-mail addresses and telephone numbers of companies and individuals from Scotland, the US, the Middle East, and the Far East. Using the documents officers traced 11 victims, including one in Scotland who lost up to £20,000, and a retired 72-year-old American businessman who lost $46,500."

Okoeguale was jailed for 20 months at Caernarfon Crown Court today.

Posted by david at April 2, 2004 09:41 PM | TrackBack
Comments

I've had a couple of those recently and it's kind of funny that they'd go to the bother of finding my last name... it can't be a mass-mailing! Perhaps they're getting desperate.

Posted by: Havdala at April 6, 2004 09:08 PM