An elderly American man, Michael Neu has been arrested by the police in the US state of Louisiana for posing as a Nigerian prince to scam people.
Neu, 67, reportedly duped thousands of people across America from his base in Slidell, Louisiana.
The internet fraudster posing as a Nigerian prince used emails offering hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars in secret inheritances or, in some cases, payment for assistance laundering ill-gotten gains from mining conglomerates or royal treasuries.
The police in Slidell said that though the story lines sound ridiculous, millions of dollars are still lost to the scam on a yearly basis.
In these scams, the supposed Nigerian prince (or other official) asks for the person’s personal banking information in order to speed the transfer of the purported inheritance or temporarily hold the allegedly pilfered funds. The information can then be used to withdraw funds from the victim’s account.
Neu faces 269 counts of wire fraud and money laundering.
He was arrested following an investigation that lasted 18 months.
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