Date sites hid global fraudsters

GULFPORT // Seven Africans on trial in the US have admitted to a global fraud network that used dating websites to contact victims. The six Nigerian men and a South African woman are among 21 defendants charged in a federal court in Gulfport, Mississippi, last week, the US department of justice said.

The investigation started in September 2011, when a woman in Biloxi told police that a man she had met through a dating website sent her mobile phones to repackage and reship. She allowed homeland security investigators to use her email account to correspond with the man.

Investigators learnt that the scam involved about 200 people worldwide, led from South Africa and Nigeria. Warrants were issued to investigate 360 email accounts, obtaining about a million messages. The conspirators used emails to gain victims’ affection and persuade them to send money and participate in other frauds, according to a statement submitted to the court with the guilty pleas.

It said those included depositing and then wiring someone else money from $29 million (Dh106.5m) in cheques and other monetary instruments that turned out to be counterfeit and repackaging and forwarding merchandise bought with more than 39,000 stolen credit card numbers.

The group also took over victims’ bank accounts and used several layers of “e-mules” to launder money.