Moreover, they posted fake job advertisements on websites and forums, pretending to hire individuals for seemingly legitimate work-from-home positions. In BEC scams, the conspirators posed as trusted individuals to dupe banks and companies into making unauthorized wire transfers to accounts specified by the group. In addition, they trafficked, possessed, and used stolen credit cards to further their fraudulent schemes. They hacked into online accounts, impersonated individuals, and adopted fake identities to deceive their targets. To execute their schemes, the group employed email phishing attacks to acquire victims’ login credentials and sensitive information. The intended losses resulting from these scams exceeded one million dollars (though, it isn’t confirmed if the actual losses were this large), and among the victims were well-known entities like First American Holding Company and MidFirst Bank. The group carried out a series of complex financial fraud schemes over the internet, targeting unsuspecting individuals, banks, and businesses in the United States and other countries.īetween December 2011 and January 2017, Okpe and his accomplices engaged in a variety of scams, including business email compromise (BEC), work-from-home, check-cashing, romance, and credit card fraud. Solomon Ekunke Okpe, who is a 31-year-old from Nigeria, has been sentenced to four years and one month in prison for his participation in a cybercriminal group that operated from Nigeria and Malaysia.

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