In yet another romance scam, two Nigerian men have been arrested in Suwon, South Korea for allegedly swindling victims, mostly women, of tens of thousands of dollars.
The Gyeonggi Nambu Police Agency, just south of Seoul, on Wednesday April 28, said the suspects defrauded four South Koreans, three women and one man of about 120 million won (US$107,900) in total after the two befriended the victims online under fake identities.
According to the police, one of the suspects falsely introduced himself as a U.S. military surgeon based in Yemen to a South Korean woman he met on a social network service in January.
After a month of friendly online exchanges, the Nigerian man allegedly tricked her into sending him a total of 51 million won for his fake project to ship gold bars to South Korea.
The other Nigerian falsely posed as an employee at the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and a female U.S. soldier to trick one woman and a man, police said.
The police said whether they were working together has yet to be confirmed as both of them were denying the charges.
The Gyeonggi Nambu Police Agency is currently looking into 57 romance scam cases reported since January including the latest cases.
The police are expanding the probe to see if the cases involve any larger fraud organizations.