The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Thursday said it had recovered and returned €10,000 to a French victim of love scam, F. Mercade.
A statement issued in Abuja by Wilson Uwujaren, spokesman for the EFCC, said the money was “wired” to the victim’s account in France.
Uwujaren said the mode of sending the money was on the recommendation of the French Embassy in Nigeria.
According to him, Roger Balima, a French Police Liaison Officer, who confirmed the receipt of the money by the victim, “thanked the EFCC for the good job”.
Uwujaren said Mercade was duped by two internet fraudsters, Omodara Oluseye and Adesuyi Adedapo, after he was deceived into a phantom relationship that was supposedly alter bound.
The EFCC spokesman said the scam was reported to the commission via a petition from the French Consulate in Lagos on behalf of Mercade.
According to him, the petitioner said he met a Nigerian lady, “Kate Williams” on the internet sometime in 2009 and they developed a relationship, which was to culminate in marriage.
Uwujaren added: “Williams was to relocate to join Mercade in France, to consummate the relationship while Mercade planned the logistics of the relocation.
“Williams, who purportedly did some jobs for an unnamed company in Nigeria, came up with a story that the company refused to pay her.
“Mercade parted with the money through Western Union, in processing his “bride’s” passage with no bride in sight and it eventually dawned on him that he had been scammed.”
Uwujaren said investigations by EFCC revealed that Kate Williams is the false name of Oluseye, a male student of the College of Agriculture, Akure, Ondo State.
According to him, Oluseye’s accomplice, Adedapo, assisted in collecting the money transferred by the victim from Akure, Ondo State branch of a new generation bank, using a forged driver’s licence.
NAN.
Follow The Eagle Online Channel on WhatsApp
