Love Scam! Two Nigerians Jailed In UK For N464 Million (photos)

Two Nigerian men who swindled a woman out of N464 million in a love scam by using a fictional character to contact her on a dating website have been jailed.

The woman thought she was corresponding with a man called Christian Anderson, and she gave him money to fund a supposed business project.

The fake persona
was created by Ife Ojo and Olusegun Agbaje, who both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud in a UK court

Love scammers Ife Ojo and Olusegun Agbaje

Ojo was sentenced to 34 months in prison and Agbaje to 32 months for being involved in the love scam.

The victim of the fraud, a woman in her 40s from London, struck up a correspondence with the fictitious Anderson through Match.com.

She was persuaded to pay money to his personal assistant in order to help him complete a project in Benin so that he could come to live with her in the UK.

Some of her payments were worth over N7 million.

Prosecutor Lesley Bates said the victim borrowed money from friends and family, believing it would be paid back when Anderson came to live with her.

“She [the victim] has since experienced stress, cries, is depressed and unable to trust people,” Bates said.

Police identified Agbaje, 43, from Hornchurch, London, when they raided his home, finding him with Ojo, 31.

At Ojo’s home they found a laptop containing records of the victim’s conversation and a seduction kit including the poetry book For My Soulmate and a dating manual called The Game

John Femi-Ola, mitigating for Ojo, said his client was originally from Nigeria and had been introduced to the scam by Agbaje.

Simon Smith, mitigating for Agbaje, said his role was to provide a bank account.

“The planning and sophistication of this crime was not his responsibility.”

The court heard the victim met somebody pretending to be Anderson in person once, describing him as “a handsome white man”.

The police are still working to identify others involved, including the person who posed as Anderson.