Nigerian arrested in fake money scam

Nigerian arrested in fake money scam

The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) on Friday arrested a Nigerian man suspected of running a multi-million baht fake money scam.

The DSI director-general Tarit Pengdit said Ezeokolie Jude Nwokenamma, 37, was arrested at his rented apartment in Bangkok’s Bang Kapi district on Friday morning. Police seized seven mobile phones, 13 SIM cards, two notebooks, two bank books, three ATM cards and equipment used to make counterfeit money.

The suspect allegedly used two Facebook accounts to contact victims claiming that he was either a former American soldier or diplomat with a stash of dollar banknotes that he was unable to use because they had the word “original” stamped on them.

He asked his victims to pay for a special liquid to remove the "original" stamp at the cost of 700,000 baht, promising to then give them the cash at a favourable exchange rate. Mr Nwokenamma showed his victims two real banknotes, which he exchanged into Thai baht to gain their trust.

The latest victim, who is a pharmacist, transferred 400,000 baht to the man before he disappeared without paying him the dollars as promised.

The DSI believe that as many as 100 people may have fallen victim to the scam, with damages totalling up to 80 million baht between them.

The DSI instructed people not to wire money into a number of Thai bank accounts that are linked with the scam. They are Widarat Ngenyodrak at Thanachat Bank, Waleeporn Ruangrod and Nuchalee Butrthongkam at Bangkok Bank, Kaeochai Phu-ug at CIMB bank and Thanapol Riangdet at Kasikornbank.

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