As a result of a joint effort of American law enforcement agencies with law enforcement agencies of South Africa, six Nigerians were extradited from South Africa to the United States to face a variety of fraud charges including conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, conspiracy to commit identity theft and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The six Nigerians are Oladimeji Seun Ayelotan, Rasaq Aderoju Raheem, Olusequn Seyi Shonekan, Taofeeq Olamilekan Oyelade, Olufemi Obaro Omoraka and Anuoluwapo Segun Adegbemigun and they along with fifteen others are accused of operating a number of scams including online romance scams using the online dating site Seniorpeoplemeet.com and scams in which they would convince their victims to ship and receive goods purchased with stolen credit card and banking information as well as depositing checks and wiring the proceeds out of the country as ways of laundering funds obtained through scams and identity theft.
TIPS
A little common sense and skepticism can go a long way in protecting you from becoming a victim of scams. Online romance scams can be avoided to a great extent by recognizing that someone who immediately falls in love with you and soon thereafter needs you to send money for whatever reason is most likely a scam. In addition, you may wish to do a reverse image search to see if the photo that has been provided to you is actually the person who they say they are. Here is a link to Tineye http://tineye.com/ one of the websites where you can do such a reverse image search. Of course, in some instances, the romance scammer may also be stealing the name of the person whose photo they stole, but that is not often the case.
As for work-at-home scams which are also rampant, it just makes sense that being sent goods and being asked to then send them somewhere else has no legitimate purpose as does depositing money into your account and then being asked to wire the money elsewhere. These are merely transparent attempts at money laundering. Don’t get involved.