Nigerian scammer arrested in Philadelphia

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Arrest made in Nigerian Internet scam
By MARGARET GIBBONS Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Alert bank officials helped authorities intervene to prevent a 64-year-old Hatfield Township man, who'd already lost $29,000, from giving away another $46,000 in a Nigerian online dating scheme.

Maxwell Gbogboade, 44, of Maryland, was picked up Thursday in the lobby of the Philadelphia Airport Marriot Hotel lobby where the victim was scheduled to deliver the $46,000. Gbogboade, described by authorities as "just a cog" in the scam, is being held in the county prison in lieu of $750,000 cash bail on attempted theft charges.

"This is just another variation of the online scams we all see coming out of Nigeria, the get rich quick or find the love of your life scams with which everyone with a computer is bombarded," said Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman Monday. "It seems that Nigeria is the international Internet scam capital of the world."

"Most people know these are scams and do not engage but there are still some trusting souls who fall prey," she said.

"What is important here is that we actually got someone involved in these scams and arrested him here," said Ferman. "Hopefully, we'll be able to track back and find some of those responsible for these scams."

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Alleged Internet scammer now faces felony charges for scheme involving Hatfield victim
Published: Thursday, June 02, 2011
By Dan Sokil
For NorthPennLife.com

An accused Internet thief is headed to court over charges he tried to scam a Hatfield man out of $46,000 through an online dating scheme.

Maxwell Gbogboade, 44, will face two felony charges — one of theft by deception and one of attempted theft — in county court July 13, after his preliminary hearing before District Judge Kenneth Deatelhauser in Souderton May 26.


Bunn and Hatfield Police Detectives Keith Bell and Richard Hoffner described in the hearing how Gbogboade set up a meeting with the victim on May 19 at the Marriott hotel near the airport in order to receive $46,000, which the victim believed would be used to fund a movie and earn up to $2 million.

“She told me she named me as her next of kin, and the money would go into my bank account. I was told initially it would be around $2 million,” said the victim.

“Mary and I had planned to get married and start a family,” he said.

Those assurances came from the allegedly fictitious Mary Douglas, whom the victim told the court he met through an online dating site in February and to whom he believed he had sent more than $24,000 to help with travel and other expenses while filming a movie in Nigeria.

A PNC Bank branch on West Broad Street notified police when the victim tried to transfer $46,000 to Nigeria as insurance to help back the movie’s production costs, and police investigation revealed that several pictures the victim thought Douglas had sent to him were actually from adult websites, Bell told the court.

“We were contacted by PNC Bank out of concern for, No. 1, the large amount of cash that he asked to withdraw, and their concern that there was some kind of fraud going on,” Bell said.

After trying multiple money transfers that were rejected by the bank, the victim met with Hatfield Police on the morning of May 19 before the bank branch opened, and police traced back to Nigeria the IP addresses of the emails instructing the victim to send funds.

During the course of that day, as emails came in from multiple fictitious identities to the victim trying to arrange a meeting and cash transfer, he told the courier that his car had broken down and that a friend would drive him to the airport, according to Bell

One of the allegedly fictitious identities emailed the victim a second fictitious name, and the second emailed a security code that would be used by “Soloh Batuya,” a courier from Nigeria who later called the victim asking to set up an airport meeting in order to take the money.

Hatfield and Philadelphia police coordinated to set up surveillance of the airport hotel, and Bell told the court that the Philadelphia officers would be able to testify in a jury trial if the case proceeds that far.

Around 5:50 p.m. May 19, a Philadelphia police officer called the phone number that “Batuya” had emailed to the victim and saw a man in the lobby answer the call on his cell phone; when officers approached, he identified himself as Gbogboade, Bell said, but he was found to have two cell phones, the security code and the checkbook with the false name in his possession.

“It’s clear that he knew he was playing a role. He was going to scam this guy, and it’s a good thing that the detectives were able to stop it,” said Bunn.

Gbogboade remains in custody at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in lieu of $750,000 bail, a figure that his defense attorney Peter Thomas of Norristown-based Fox and Fox P.C. tried to argue was excessively high.

“He’s 44 years old, has been a Maryland resident for six years and worked at a Home Depot for four and has no prior record of any type. He’s never returned to his home country, which is Nigeria, but to me $750,000 is more than a little excessive,” Thomas said.

Thomas also attempted to argue that the charge of theft by deception should be dismissed because the victim never signed a contract with any of the allegedly fictitious characters and could, in theory, still get the money — a theory that Deatelhauser decided should be heard by a jury, before setting Gbogboade’s formal arraignment date for July 13.

“It’s extremely rare you catch somebody involved in one of these Nigerian online scams,” Bunn said.

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