US authorities arrest 2 Nigerians, 6 others over $15m internet fraud

Two Nigerians have been arrested wiith six other people in connection to their alleged roles in international fraud schemes that targeted United States businesses and

According to indictments disclosed by the Acting Assistant Attorney-General of the US Department of Justice, John Cronan, charges brought against the suspects are related to wire fraud, money laundering, computer fraud and identity fraud.

The Nigerians, alongside three Ghanaians, two Americans and a Mexican, allegedly formed a fraud ring that targeted victims with internet related intrusions.

Cronan said, "The defendants allegedly unleashed a barrage of international fraud schemes that targeted US businesses and individuals, robbing them to the tune of approximately 15 million dollars."

According to a report by News Agency of Nigeria, the suspects allegedly used spoofed email addresses and other anonymisation techniques to identify large financial transactions and initiated fraudulent email correspondence with relevant business parties. This led to the redirection of closing funds for real estate transactions to destinations in Africa.

Of all six suspects, three - two Ghanaians and a Nigerian - were arrested outside of the US as they await extradition while the other 5 were arrested in the US.

According to the indictment, the Africa-based suspects committed a series of intrusions into the servers and email systems of a Memphis-based real estate company in 2017. Some of them are also charged with operating romance scams, fraudulent check scams, gold-buying scams and credit card scams.

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The indictment of the eight suspects is part of Operation Keyboard Warrior coordinated by the US and international law enforcement agencies to disrupt online frauds perpetrated from Africa.