r/news • u/AudibleNod • 8h ago
6 Nigerians being extradited to US for swindling women out of $6M in romance scams
https://apnews.com/article/south-africa-us-nigeria-extradition-scam-d2f27c43ed62eaa4c10c5724825629ca43
u/Norn-Iron 4h ago
Girlfriends uncle and her mother were hit by romance scammers from Nigeria. Even after I did a reverse image search of photos that were sent and pointed out how blatant a scam it was, the uncle doubled down and refused to believe it.
It was insane, some people are just that desperate and lonely they will believe anything and will sacrifice everything for that fake reality they are literally buying into.
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u/greystripes9 1h ago
It is so frustrating you can’t tell them any different. They must know all the right words to get someone in such a short time.
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u/Norn-Iron 1h ago
What is crazy is how quickly they can fall for it again. Girlfriend’s mother wised up but was almost immediately targeted again by them pretending to be someone else and she was starting to fall for it again but did ask for any information that could be gotten. What’s worse is how common the scams are like working on oil rigs and that doesn’t even set off an alarm
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u/aCynicalMind 43m ago
My 71 year old mother recently lost everything she had within about a year to these people.
Retirement savings? Gone. House she had since 1998? Gone. Relationships with her friend and family? Gone.
I'm still living in the aftermath, and it's just so sad what has happened to her.
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u/greystripes9 9m ago
That is horrible. I wonder what could be done about these things. 71 is not even that old.
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u/9447044 8h ago
"Among the alleged victims were pensioners and businesspeople who were reportedly targeted through sophisticated online relationships."
Hey, this is Chris Hemsworth and your the most beautiful girl ive seen. Unfortunately im stuck in france and only need a ticket worth us$1321. If you can get me to America, I will date you and dinner with you. Signed Chris Hem
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u/ifyouseemerunning 6h ago
a man met my mother in person at a mall food court, even going so far as having his “kids” meet him once the hook was baited. after several innocent “dates” he had to “unexpectedly” go to south africa for work.
apparently that’s when the calls for being stuck and needing help to get back to his kids started. she was clearly handed off to a call center who lavished her with attention, praise and longing.
she lost everything - hundreds of thousands of dollars, her house, her health, her independence - to loneliness.
she never told me about it and i didn’t find out until she was hospitalized. and it was too late.
that’s when the dementia was first diagnosed. so, after everything, she still believed it was real.
there was no recourse. the bank did nothing because she willingly sent the money. the police and feds did nothing because it was international (they shut down the bank accounts, but the group would just create new companies/accounts and set up anew).
my point is this shit is absolutely not a joke. these operations are much more sophisticated than you think. they prey on the weak, the sick, the lonely. they’ll research people and target them. they’ll tell them to hide it from their family until they’re out of money and use the victim’s relationships to try and extract funds from others under false pretenses.
these scammers destroy people’s lives. they’re absolutely evil and it’s disgusting.
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u/pinkydoodle22 5h ago
Wow, in person meeting and trade off is some next level horror to the already huge evil of scamming!
My dad got scammed as well and in denial / undiagnosed dementia. It’s sick how they go after anyone but especially elderly. And then come the fund retrieval scams - they will help you get your money back, promise!! 😩
He still believes people are helping him get it back. And that the random WhatsApp 30 year old wealthy lawyer Asian chick who reached out to him and is in love with him. There are some truly evil, cruel, heartless people out there.
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u/fifawitz1313 6h ago
My uncle met his scammer at an airport bar in Charlotte. She told him she could make him money trading crypto. Developed into a romance scam and took him for $300k+. They walk amongst us, sit next to us, strike up casual conversations with us, and are absolute professionals on how how to tighten the noose with every inch you give them. Stay vigilant.
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u/rpgmind 1h ago
It’s crazy just how powerful social engineering is, man. Like you say, they are actual predators that will approach you and try to lay the bait, I’m guessing they watch you for a bit before approaching to tailor the story a bit. I just find it so wild how these people are actual pros at engaging conversion to elicit info out of you.
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u/aCynicalMind 41m ago
This all happened to my mother recently. She lost everything within the span of a year. It is disgusting, and not enough is being done to combat the issue.
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u/Voodoocookie 8h ago
That easy? Shiett. I'm in the wrong profession.
Hi I'm Q Jackman. I'm stuck in New Zealand. If you just help me with A$6543, back to Alice Springs, I'm sure we could fool around a bit. Whaddaya say, darling?
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u/Kalamac 5h ago
The Chris Hemsworth scam actually happened. Woman in Sydney thought she was secretly dating him, and the reason she had to keep giving him money was because all of his money was in joint accounts with his wife.
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u/VRNord 52m ago
Outside of dementia, it is always the greedy who fall for scams.
Either monetary greed (unrealistic return on investment like Ponzi schemes or Nigerian princes who need a few thousand dollars and will repay you millions) or romantic/sexual greed (someone far hotter than you would ever be able to attract needs money and there is promised or implied payoff once you pay up). And it is hard to feel sorry for these folks because they all know it is a super unrealistic promised payoff but do it anyway because of greed. Not that they deserve to lose all their money, but as the saying goes “a fool and his money are soon parted.” And because they are embarrassed and unwilling to admit they are fools they often continue to fund the scam even after they see clear signs this isn’t real.
Again, dementia-related lapses in judgement are a whole different situation.
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u/chowchan 7h ago
Hey its me Cristiano Messi, here's the boots I play with. Here's a video of me training. Send me 2k.
I'd say it'll be easier with how advance AI is now at making fake videos, but those 30+ women all fell for a simple video lmao
I assume it was as easy this time round.
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u/PetsAndMeditate 5m ago
It’s funny to think about like that yeah, but a scammer got me after I had gotten into a bad car accident and had a traumatic brain injury. Embarrassing and I’d never fall for it under normal circumstances. I never trust anyone anymore just keep to myself now.
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u/Decay384 7h ago
I really wonder how much money India and Nigeria are making from all of these scams. Given that Indian scammers were reportedly able to defraud Estonia of $70 million intended for defensive weapons to Ukraine, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some level of government involvement or complicity.
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u/SinVerguenza04 3h ago
I watched a video the other day where places like India have scam slaves—people they traffic and force to participate in scam call centers. That whole underbelly is seedy as fuck.
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u/Anushkvijay 14m ago
India doesn't have scam slaves. It's primarily a Cambodia and Myanmar phenomenon. Even poor Indians can fall victim to it: they're lured by too-good-to-be-true job opportunities in the Gulf, only to be transported to Cambodia and forced to work in scam call centers run by Chinese criminal mafia. To get free, they either have to get money sent from India or earn a certain amount for their captors.
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u/Nonameswhere 8h ago
Boy Nigeria must have a lot of millionaires.
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u/kstargate-425 7h ago
Full of Princes for sure...
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u/Somestunned 3h ago
"Dear Respected Sir, I find myself in dire circumstances due to an unfortunate misunderstanding with the law. Having amassed a sizeable fortune through creative means, I now face an extradition. I am in need of your help and will reward you for same..."
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u/Snarfbuckle 8h ago
Something tells me they were not of regal birth...
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u/the_missing_worker 3h ago
The beauty of this though is that their scam just became like 400% more honest. They are Nigerian, they do have millions of dollars they "temporarily" do not have access to, there is now a legal snafu requiring the help of a third party. They could now legitimately offer financial compensation in exchange for that third party getting them out of this jam.
Real case of the boy who cried wolf...
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u/RedRyder15 2h ago
Extradited or just being brought in for the finale of season whatever of 90day fiance?
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u/drhavehope 5h ago
We are not all like this…I promise.
If it’s too good to be true in an email…it’s too good to be true
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u/Magickspl_269 4h ago
Some locals here got spoofed calls from our non emergency police line?! lol-crazy stuff to have the cops call and it was a scam call?!
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u/AdhesivenessFun2060 2h ago
Theyre bringing them here so they can deport them again. Keep them numbers up.
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u/GildedDreams25 2h ago
i’m sorry, i feel for the woman that got scammed, but how do you give someone you’ve never met SIX MILLION DOLLARS
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u/starrpamph 1h ago
I argued with an old woman on Facebook for around four days that she was getting scammed by Nigerians pretending to be a retired army general..
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u/WhatANoob2025 3h ago edited 3h ago
So the US is deporting law abiding immigrants that are already in the country, but importing immigrants that broke the law somewhere else?
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u/TemperedTorture 4h ago
I dunno, something about a man or a woman sending Xbox gift cards to people pretending to be Kim Kardashian or Elon Musk doesn't really invoke a lot of sympathy in me
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u/Sunsetmargaritas 7h ago
Trump is literally spending hundreds of millions deporting foreign "criminals", most of whom have done nothing illegal. Then here he is "importing" actual criminals.
(People who would have deserved to be deported if they were caught here. Only now we have to try them and pay for their imprisonment.)
Fucking genius.
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u/givemecoffeenowhurry 7h ago edited 5h ago
Extradition of foreign criminals who commit a crime against Americans is not a new concept and didn't start with Trump.
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u/CorporateStef 5h ago
But it does appear to be a new concept that "criminals are coming over here and taking our prison spaces" at least in the UK.
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u/kstargate-425 6h ago
Half his Cabinet is made of criminals, from Trumpstein file pedos like Lutnick to rapists, wife beaters and fraudsters. They surround themselves with like-minded scum
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u/Money-Snow-2749 6h ago
So in other words they get a vacation? Like I’m sure compared to African prison American prisonS are going to be a cakewalk.
It’s good they caught them though in 2021 and maybe it will lead to shutting down an even wider network.
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u/Greifvogel1993 1m ago
We can extradite 6 dudes hiding in Nigeria, but we can’t find a single man or woman in the Epstein files?
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u/santz007 7h ago
If they are gullible enough to be scammed, the current administration would probably have taken it from them using doom and gloom narrative.
Trump is probably upset he couldn't take it from these gullible ladies first.
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u/Brian_from_accounts 5h ago
My neighbour was scammed out of £6K - and the method used was so clever that many people would have fallen for it. Targeting & priming.
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u/bawlsacz 7h ago
Can AI help with preventing these kinds of scams?
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u/alcrowe13 2h ago
It is being used to combat the scams currently but it also needs humans to guide it and babysit. The scammers use Ai way more now but that also makes them lazy and not able to cover their tracks, so it’s sometimes easier to trace if they use Ai too much.
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u/catraiderpoke 8h ago
The irony of this government wanting to deport immigrants and then wanting these people sent to the US is beyond fiction.
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u/brikky 7h ago
They're not bringing them here for citizenship rights.
They haven't don't anythin illegal in their home countries, they have under American law though.
What's so complicated to understand here?
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u/catraiderpoke 7h ago
1) The major argument for deportation is they unfairly consume government resources and contribute little to nothing to the tax bank that distributes those resources.
2) In juxtaposition to that point, let’s spend all this taxpayer money to get these people here and pay for their wellbeing in prison.
It makes no sense other than to protect stupid people from a fake romance.
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u/shizshovel 8h ago
I mean cool sorry and all but I didn't think we are allowed to call them that....
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u/SubBirbian 8h ago
That’s a good start but barely a dent. Scammers get literally billions from scamming people in the U.S. alone and growing exponentially. Not just romance scams but fake websites, texts, emails and phone calls.