A Malaysia-based Nigerian man identified as Ogba Peter Amawhe, posed as an American in an oil-related business in Malaysia and duped a 52-year-old widow of P30 millions.
The victim, Loida (not her real name) met “Stephen Desmond Nelson” in an online dating site in March 2016. He told Loida that he was an American based in Chicago.
The two continued their online liaison until the relationship became romantic. Nelson soon convinced Loida, based on Guimaras Island, to partner in an expansion venture in the Philippines.
The venture would require capitalization amounting to P500 million which he promised to deposit in Loida’s bank accounts.
Loida gave him details of her six bank accounts including that of her automated teller machine cards which had total deposits reaching about P10 million, mostly joint earnings with her deceased British husband.
When Loida followed up the transfer of funds, Nelson told her to send P260,000 to Malaysia to cover processing and other expenses.
After two months and upon Loida’s prodding, Nelson told her he was having difficulties transferring the funds and had hired an agency to facilitate the transaction. But he again asked Loida to send a total of P7 million to defray the expenses.
This was again repeated several times and in January, until Loida discovered that her six bank accounts were almost empty.
Since they met in March last year, Loida sent about P20 million through money transfer companies. These didn’t include the P10 million that was withdrawn from her account.
- She sold or pawned two vehicles, a resort, boarding houses in