The Nigerian scammer got scammed

fuad lawal

June 7, 2015 3:05 PM

A Ukrainian startup founder counter-scammed a Nigerian scammer. How brilliant.

The scammer and 'Angelina'

Artyom Geraschenkov become buddies with a Nigerian scammer who was posing as a white female ‘Angelina Crane,’ via one of Russian social media sites.

‘Angelina’, an American, who is currently residing in Nigeria, asked Artyom for financial help by transferring 50 or 60 US dollars a week.

He immediately understood the fraudulent motive behind his new ‘lady’ friend’s request, decided to play along and expose the scammer.

He replied by saying ‘Angelina’ was worth more than just $60 and suggested sending $500-600 instead. ‘Angelina’ happily agreed and sent her personal details necessary for making the monetary transfer – including the documents with the real name and photograph of the scammer, Olukade Kehinde Martins.

However, this was when the Ukranian told the scammer he was a dealer with Apple and had, coincidentally, to ship 200 iPhones to Lagos, all of which but one paid for by a local Apple store.

Artyom promised her she could take two iPhone devices if she compensated the cost of one of them, explaining that it would be impossible to ship the whole batch of phones to Nigeria without leaving one unpaid for.

Eventually, Mr Geraschenkov managed to persuade Angelina-Olukade to send him $600. Once he received the money, he told the scammer he, too, was a Nigerian residing in Lagos.

In an interview with a Russian media outlet Meduza, Mr Geraschenkov said he returned the money to the Nigerian scammer, half-jokingly admitting that a clean “karma” was more important.

fuad lawal