A federal grand jury Thursday indicted a Nigerian national and a British citizen living here in an alleged Internet hoax that promised a share of $20 million in a box at Bush Intercontinental Airport.
Nigerian Patrick Omu, 36, and Ambrose Agwuibe, 43, were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 18 counts of wire fraud and are in jail here.
If convicted, they could receive five years in prison on the conspiracy charge and 20 years in prison on each wire fraud charge, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Hileman said.
Numerous people in the United States and Canada were sent e-mails promising them a large share of $20 million if they would pick up a box at the airport and keep it until its owners could retrieve it. People were asked to wire money to cover shipping, handling and inspection fees. [HoustonChronicle.com]
a multi-tasked stream of consciousness or perhaps just emails to myself
The US government as well as the FBI must ensure these scammers are fully being wacthed. These are well educated blue collar scammers. They are physicians, lawyers, accountants etc… with a very dishonnest way of accumulating wealth, while holding professional carreers. These are the people we trust.