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Nigerian 'Jeff Sessions' Imposter Faces Prison

by Babangida Jibrin

   LAGOS/WASHINGTON --

   Nigerian businessman Karim Oluwaseyi created a Gmail account to
   impersonate U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Now, Oluwaseyi has
   been charged with attempting to extort money under false pretenses.

   According to charges filed by Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes
   Commission (EFCC), Oluwaseyi requested money using the email address
   jeffsessions54@gmail.com in exchange for services rendered in the
   United States, in what is known as an "advance-fee scam."

   The exact contents of his messages have not been made public, but
   Oluwaseyi may have offered to provide legal advice or assistance, key
   functions of the U.S. attorney general, in exchange for undisclosed
   sums of money.

   Online scammers often use technical prowess and a keen understanding of
   the human psyche to defraud people of hundreds, even thousands of
   dollars. But Oluwaseyi appeared to take a more understated approach.

   His subject lines were terse, such as "Grant." In at least one case, he
   sent a message titled "no subject," [1]according to The Premium Times,
   an online news site based in Nigeria.

   Oluwaseyi committed the alleged crimes on June 29, according to
   witnesses procured by A.M. Ocholi, a lawyer for the EFCC.

   Just two weeks earlier, U.S. officials had arrested 74 people in
   Nigeria, the United States and Canada for their roles in a
   multinational fraud syndicate, Wired magazine [2]reported.

   It's unclear how many people received messages from Oluwaseyi and
   whether he managed to extort any money before his scheme unraveled.

   Some online scammers in Nigeria, also called "yahoo boys," have said
   it's their idleness that drives them to defraud people. But Malam
   Haruna Mustapha, a young Nigerian man who spoke to VOA's Hausa Service,
   blamed the problem on greed and the desire to get rich quick.

   "Refusal to accept where God places you is what makes them look at what
   others have. They want to be like them overnight without finding how
   those ones started, what they went through and how they endured before
   they get to where they are today," Mustapha said.

   The tactics online scammers employ may seem far-fetched, even comical,
   but they can cause significant damage both to their victims and to
   society as a whole.

   "Scamming or stealing through the internet does a great harm to the
   national economy, especially as such acts discourage investors from
   coming to Nigeria," Dauda Muhammed Kontagora, an economist who spoke to
   VOA's Hausa Service, said.

   The judge in the case, Justice Oyindamola Ogala, remanded Oluwaseyi to
   prison until September 10, when he will consider an application for
   bail.

   The U.S. Department of Justice declined VOA's request for an interview
   while Oluwaseyi's legal situation continues to evolve. "We are not
   going to comment on a pending criminal matter in a foreign country," a
   DOJ spokesperson told VOA.

   Oluwaseyi has denied all charges against him.

   This story originated in [3]VOA's Hausa Service with Babangida Jibrin
   reporting from Lagos and Salihu Garba [4]translating from Washington.
   Salem Solomon wrote the story and Masood Farivar contributed from
   Washington.

   Salem Solomon is a multimedia digital journalist with the Voice of
   America's Africa Division. She covers [5]the latest news from across
   the continent, and she also reports and edits in [6]Amharic and
   [7]Tigrigna.

   Salem's multimedia and data-driven projects include [8]How Western
   DRC's Ebola Outbreak Was Contained, [9]Unrest: Ethiopia at a
   Crossroads, [10]Zimbabwe in Transition, [11]Hunger Across Africa and
   [12]How Long Have Africa's Presidents Held Office?

   Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post,
   Poynter.org and Reuters. She researches trends in analytics and digital
   journalism. For tips and inquiries, email: salemsolomon@voanews.com.

References

   1. https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/282580-nigerian-businessman-arraigned-for-allegedly-impersonating-u-s-attorney-general.html
   2. https://www.wired.com/story/feds-bust-nigerian-email-scammers/
   3. https://www.voahausa.com/
   4. https://www.voahausa.com/a/efcc-ta-gurfanar-da-wani-dan-damfara-kotun-legas/4561522.html
   5. http://www.voanews.com/author/25229.html
   6. http://amharic.voanews.com/author/25085.html
   7. http://tigrigna.voanews.com/author/25525.html
   8. https://projects.voanews.com/drc-ebola-outbreak/?utm_source=voaprojects
   9. https://projects.voanews.com/ethiopia-unrest/
  10. https://projects.voanews.com/zimbabwe-in-transition/
  11. http://projects.voanews.com/africa-drought/home.php
  12. http://projects.voanews.com/african-presidents/