A court in Ho Chi MInh has sentenced a South African man, Mbouwe Ebubu, 41, to seven years in prison for his role in defrauding a Vietnamese woman, Vi, 29 of $9000.
According to a local media report, Ebubu had met Vi via an online forum, where he claimed to be an American and planning to settle in Vietnam with Vi, and the duo can start a family. He then told Vi that he would send her a $320,000 in a safe, and the woman can receive it in Vietnam. The pair had trusted themselves after a series of online chats and loving online.
Ebubu in court on Thursday Photo Credit:Vnexpress
Ebubu who uses the name Alex online, then sent the safe to her (Vi), and a woman who claimed to be working in a shipping company in Malaysia then told Vi that she would need to pay $1,000 for her shipping fee. Vi went ahead with the money after Alex had attested her person.
After they had scaled through the shipping company barrier, another man called Vi and told her that he had been stopped at the airport and he is with the safe, unfortunately, she will need to part with $2,000 to get away from the airport. Vi obliged to the payment, and after that payment, she was called frequently for more cash and payment to see to that the safe is safely delivered to her. All total cash spent by Vi was said to be $9,000.
Alex now has grown more confident and probably see that Vi is a vulnerable person to be exploited, so onthe 20th of March, he decided to use an old trick from his book of scam by going to Vi's house with a safe, and told her that the safe contained packs of dollars.
But they will need to wash it off with some chemicals, and that will cost them $60,000. Vi accepted, but he had known that this is a daylight robbery, and decided to call on the police. He had promised Ebubu to come for the money later, and when he came to meet her, he was apprehended by policemen.
The police believes that Ebubu accomplices are living abroad.