A group of Nigerians stole millions from US companies and individuals by sending fake emails to businesses and using romance scams, according to the FBI.
On Thursday, federal investigators unsealed an Oct. 2018 indictment against more than 80 suspects involved in the online fraud, which collected at least $6 million from unsuspecting victims, including the elderly.
The suspects' most lucrative scheme used a tactic called business email compromise or CEO fraud. This can involve posing as a business executive over email, and trying to trick the victim company into wiring a large sum of money to a bank account. According to the indictment, the scammers likely pulled this off by hacking into business email accounts to send off the legitimate-looking, but fake emails to the victim companies.
The scheme tricked individual victim firms into wiring tens of thousands of dollars; one company sent $1.75 million. On the romance scam front, the suspects created fake profiles on dating websites and social media platforms to trick people into sending them money and gifts.
"The overall conspiracy was responsible for the attempted theft of at least an additional $40 million," US officials said in today's announcement.
The unsealed indictment doesn't offer specifics about the scams. Rather, today's announcement focuses on the money laundering side of the operation. Federal investigators have charged two Nigerian nationals based in California—Valentine Iro and Chukwudi Christogunus Igbokwe—with controlling the bank accounts used to receive the money from the victims. Once the funds were collected, the two suspects distributed it to co-conspirators based in Nigeria while taking a cut for themselves.
The feds unsealed the indictment after US law enforcement arrested 14 suspects connected with the fraud. They live in the US, but the other suspects are believed to be based in Nigeria and remain at large.
To prevent falling for a business email compromise scams, the FBI advises company staffers to first call up their CEO or the relevant executive to verify that a major wire transfer request is legit. The FTC has also issued tips on how to avoid romance scams.