NYSC member, undergraduate arraigned for internet scam

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arraigned the trio of Solomon Uchendu, Ndubisi Agu and Uchendo Chikwadu for internet scam.

The defendants were arraigned before Justice D. V. Agishir of the Federal High Court sitting in Enugu, Enugu State, for offences bordering on obtaining by false pretences and Advanced Fee Fraud.

It was learnt that the suspects were arrested by operatives of the EFCC following intelligence report over their alleged involvement in internet crime. Continue..

One of the suspects, Uchendu, was said to be on the mandatory National Youth Service Corps programme in Akoko, Ondo State.

It was gathered that Solomon, who was arraigned on seven counts, said most of his victims were from the US, Canada and Germany.

According to the suspect, Patricia from Canada gave him $1,200; Larisa from Germany gave him $3,000; while Ethel from the US also gave him $3,000.

He added that the victims knew him as Lincoln, but they did not know that he lived in Nigeria.

The second suspect, Agu, a final year student of a university of science and technology in Enugu, told the court that he too had numerous e-mail accounts.

He said further that he made $13,000 between late 2013 and February, 2014 from some of his victims across the world.

It was learnt that the third suspect, 22-year-old Chikwadu, had three fake drivers’ licences, procured in the names of John Omoaroijake, Gary Harry and Chikwadu Uchendu at the licencing office at Jakpa Road in Warri, Delta State.

Chikwadu said he met one 32-year-old nurse, Grace Talves of Blackpool, United Kingdom on a dating site.

The suspect, who claimed to be Harry Phillp, 42, thereafter, began to send love scam mails and pictures to Talves, a British divorcee and mother of one. He stated that he duped her of £500, an Ipad and a Mac Air laptop.

The charges read in part, “That you, Solomon Uchendu, on or about May 3, 2014, in Enugu, Enugu State within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court of Nigeria, was found in possession of a document containing a false information and thereby committed an offence, contrary to Section 6 and Section 8 sub-section( b ) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offence Act 2006 and punishable under Section 1 (3) of the same Act.”

“That you Uchendu Chinonso on or about May 3, 2014 in Enugu, Enugu State, was found in possession of a document containing a picture in which you presented yourself as a white man….”

Agishir adjourned the case to February 10, 2015, while ordering that the suspects be remanded in prison custody.