In their unsolicited emails, the three accused allegedly claimed to be terminally ill throat cancer patients and asked for help in distributing 55 billion dollars to charity, offering 20% in exchange. When a person was interested, the accused made contact via email and telephone to send numerous falsified documents in an attempt to persuade the person to pay an amount to cover "legal expenses", before disappearing.
“It may be hard to believe that people fall for this type of crime, but sadly there are vulnerable and naïve people out there who do hand over their information and money to criminals. These men stole over $1.2 million with their scam emails, proving that there are still plenty of people waiting to have their bank accounts emptied by criminals on the net” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, an anti-virus vendor.
The three men, who were stopped in Amsterdam in February 2006 and plead guilty, risk up to 20 years of prison. A fourth accomplice, who had succeeded in escaping but was later captured in Nigeria, will soon join them in court.
Nnamdi Chizuba Anisiobi, 31, and Kesandu Egwuonwu, 35, both of Nigeria, and Anthony Friday Ehis, 34, of Senegal, each pleaded guilty to participating in the schemes commonly known as 419 scams in federal court in Brooklyn, N.Y.