A Nigerian fraudster, Godwin Nwaofor, 36, that has been part of an organised crime known for extorting money worth millions of pounds from his vulnerable people, especially the old and disabled in the United States have been arrested and sentenced to 7 years in jail.
Godwin uses the money he makes to fund his luxurious lifestyle of champagne, fast cars, luxury apartments. His method of scam involved sending fake letters and emails to people telling them that they had won the Australian lottery, and they should cash their winnings by calling an agent, which will be Godwin using another alias. He would then advise that they pay taxes and fees before they could get the prize.
Another method that he uses involves telling the victims to open a new bank account, and he would send them a cheque, ask them to cash the cheque and send the money on the cheque to him, after they had done that, the cheque would later be found to be fake and bounced, leaving the victim in debts.
Among Godwin's victims is a man from Mississippi who paid over over a $100,000, and another is an 81-year-old who had suffered a brain tumour, but Godwin won't stop calling the old lady, and another is a disabled former marine who is told to make round trips of 120 miles to make transfers to the fraudsters.
Nwafor was arrested in May 2014, and the phone and SIM cards found in his possession are the numbers used in contacting the victims. Another associate of Godwin is Frank “Fizzy” Onyeachonam, who was arrested for his role in the scam and jailed for 8 years in July 2014. The two men worked today sending messages between themselves and sharing the lists of potential targets, they had called the file "Suckers list", and it contains thousand of potential victims.
Though he (Godwin Nwafor) claimed to be a cleaner, making £10,000 a year, however, he had a large sum of money in his bank accounts, lived in a luxury apartment in London’s Docklands, drove expensive cars and runs a four-figure bar bills at exclusive nightclubs.
Nwafor was found guilty of the crime at Old Bailey's court on September 2 and was sentenced to 7 years in Jail and a deportation after his sentence.