Illinois: A US citizen was made fool by an online girlfriend, who were in a long-distance relationship for 2 ½ years actually was in the process of stealting for $200,000 in an online scam.
The 48-year old man thought he was assisting a girlfriend he met on a social network website when he wired money to bank accounts in Portland, Ore., Nigeria, Malaysia and England, said police in Naperville, Ill.
“He believed she had several things going where she needed money,” said Naperville Police Sgt. Gregg Bell, adding that it was against police policy to release the victim’s name.
The victim transferred $15,000 to $20,000 early in the relationship with the girlfriend that he never met in person because she said she was ill in Nigeria and needed to pay for a doctor, Bell said. Other transactions involved smaller amounts, such as $5,000 and $6,800.
The victim contacted the police on Feb. 23, when the girlfriend told him she was kidnapped in London, Bell said, adding that what the victim believed was a picture of the girlfriend actually was a sample license photo from Florida.
Although Bell has seems similar scams, he had not seen a case involving as much as $200,000 in his 23 years with the Naperville police.
There were 23,089 online frauds (advance fee fraud complaints) filed last year, according to the Internet Complaint Crime Center (IC3), collaboration between the FBI and National White Collar Crime Center.
A spokeswoman for the FBI Jenny Shearer said, “Even in an apparently trusting relationship, people should practice caution with financial solicitations.”
“Nigeria can be a hub, unfortunately, for this kind of scam,” said Shearer. “As I understand it, the country has good wireless connectivity. And anyone can purport to be who they say they are on the Internet. It’s hard to verify.”
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