Scotland’s Eye Surgeon Lost £350,000 to Nigerian Hacker

An eye surgeon from Scotland, Fawzia Ashkanani, was duped of an astounding £350,000 by a Nigerian Internet hacker who sent a spam e-mail asking the UK bank account holders to aid him transferring $300 Million to Britain.

Later on, the scam was disclosed and the crook from Nigeria, Chinaenye Mokelu (44), was detained by the UK Police.

Andrew Jackson, the Prosecutor, says that in the summer of 2007, the victim got an e-mail from a man calling himself Westerman. He claimed to have $300,000,000 in a bank account outside the UK, but he wanted someone who had a bank account in the UK to help him in a bank to bank money transfer. Unfortunately, Fawzia Ashkanani (the victim) responded to the email, as reported by Standard on April 24, 2009.

Surprisingly, Ms. Ashkanani travelled from Dumfries (Scotland) to London (UK) in order to meet the hacker. As a part of the scam, she was shown a suitcase packed with black money. Andrew also reveals that in the course of several mails and calls, the victim was directed to transfer money into two accounts managed by the defendant.

Meanwhile, the Police have revealed that he faces a prolonged prison sentence after being accused of conspiracy, defraud and having a fake passport at Basildon Crown Court (UK) in the 4th week of April 2009.

Karl Volz, Defense Agent, tried to minimize the role of his client and declared that there were several other names engaged in the case who had not been detected by the prosecution, as reported by Standard on April 24, 2009.

Nonetheless, Jeffrey Yearwood, Court Recorder, adds that he is a very somber player as far as this case is concerned. This defendant, undoubtedly, deserves a major custodial sentence. The court also informs that Chinaenye will get verdict in June 2009.

In the meantime, the report says, only £30,000 out of £350,000 the eye surgeon handed to Chinaenye has been discovered.

Related article: SaskTel Notifies Customers about Security Breach

» SPAMfighter News - 5/5/2009