A 31 yr Nigerian bags four years in prison over $1m fraud

BY SULE TAHIR

A 31-year-old Nigerian man, Solomon Ekunke Okpe, has been sentenced to four years imprisonment for taking part in online scams that targeted US citizens and banks, leading to N460m ($1 million) in losses to victims.

The 31-year-old was handed the prison term after being extradited from Malaysia, where he was arrested, to the US to stand trial.

The US Department of Justice, while announcing the sentence said Okpe and his accomplices “devised and executed business email compromise (BEC), work-from-home, check-cashing, romance, and credit card scams” between 2011 and 2017.

According to Infosecurity magazine, targeted victims included individuals, banks, and businesses in the US and other countries, who were subjected to email phishing attacks aimed at stealing login credentials and “other sensitive information.”

The DoJ described the scams as “intended to cause more than $1 million in losses to US victims” although it is not clear if the cyber-fraud gang achieved this nefarious goal.