Lagos, Nigeria
Romance was a con: An American woman lured to Nigeria by a man she met on Facebook has been rescued after being held captive by her supposed beau for more than a year. Nigerian police said the 64-year-old Washington, D.C., resident—a retired government employee whose name they are withholding—came to the country last year to marry Chukwuebuka Kasi Obiaku, 34. After the ceremony, though, Obiaku allegedly held her captive in a hotel room and took over her credit cards and bank and retirement accounts, extorting $48,000 from her and using her as a front to defraud her friends and others. Officers rescued the victim after being tipped off by “a patriotic and civic-minded Nigerian,” the police said. Nigerian authorities last month rescued a Filipino woman being held after a similar Facebook romance scam.