The arrest of American man, Michael Neu for posing as a ‘Nigerian Prince’ to perpetuate email scam in the US has continued to generate reactions.
Neu, 67, was arrested following an 18 month-long investigation and is facing 269 charges of wire fraud and money laundering, police in Slidell, Louisiana say in a statement.
They say Neu took part in hundreds of financial transactions involving phone and online scams to con money from people across the United States.
However, Sen. Shehu Sani (APC – Kaduna Central) has berated American media for perpetuating a myth that only Nigerians are involved in the infamous ‘Nigerian Prince’ scam.
He wrote on his verified Twitter handle: The arrest of an American in Louisiana linked to a series of international email scams that tarnishes the name of Nigeria exposes the source of d ‘Nigerian prince fraud’.Its time that US late night shows & western media leave us alone or at least share culpability. @MSN @nytimes
According to Miami Herald, in the ‘Nigerian Prince’ scam, anyone with an email address gets an email puprotedly from a Nigerian prince 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.
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 accounts.
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