UK convicts five scammers who preyed on widowed for £3.25M • The Register
Five romance scammers-turned-money launderers were convicted in the UK today after police shuttered a multimillion-pound fraud operation.
Prosecutors said 40 individuals were confirmed as victims, although the real number is thought to be more than double that – 99 in total.
Fawaz Ali, 27, Ebenezer Tackie, 42, and Michael Quartey, 28, were all found guilty of money laundering offences at a Guildford Crown Court trial on Friday.
The laundered proceeds from the romance scams are estimated to be £3.25 million ($4.22 million).
Two others, Kwabena Edusei, 36, and George Melseaux, 40, earlier pleaded guilty to the charges related to their roles in the operation and therefore did not face trial.
Edusei pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering charges, while Melseaux also pleaded guilty to money laundering and possession of ID documents with intent to misuse for fraudulent purposes.
Victims sent money digitally and sometimes using cash posted to the criminals, with the proceeds then laundered through their own bank accounts.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said some victims were repeatedly scammed until they had no more money left to give.
“The criminals here showed complete disregard for their victims who were met on an online dating website for the sole purpose of exploiting and scamming them out of much-needed money,” said Jane Mitchell, specialist prosecutor at the CPS.
“They caused terrible emotional distress to their victims – who were often recently divorced or widowed. None of them had any of the money they thought they were loaning repaid.
“We want to encourage all those who think they’ve been a victim of romance fraud not to feel embarrassed or ashamed but rather to report it.
“A fraud like this only succeeds if there is a willing network to launder this criminal money through their bank accounts.”
Romance scams typically see criminals posing as romantic love interests and using manipulative tactics to build fake rapport with victims, with the ultimate goal of defrauding them of money.
The relationship-building phase of the scam can last for extended periods of time – however long it takes for the criminal to establish the degree of trust required to ensure fraudulent requests for emergency medical or travel costs appear genuine.
Victim shaming in fraud cases is unfortunately still quite common, despite how pervasive and successful various scams are.
Scammers don’t just target emotionally vulnerable people, as the quintet in question did in many cases. Criminals’ tradecraft is well honed and convincing, and experts often say scams can be successful regardless of the victim’s emotional state, for example.
According to the UK’s cybercrime reporting center, Action Fraud, there are common signals exhibited by people who are embroiled in a romance scam of which their loved ones should be aware.
They include secrecy about a new relationship and/or hostility when questioned about a new partner, expressing strong emotions for very recent connections, and plans to send money to someone they’ve never met.
The City of London Police said in June 2024 that £94.7 million ($123.2 million) was lost to romance fraud in the UK during the 12 months prior. Around the same time, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said $1.14 billion was lost to this type of scam in the US in 2023. The year before, it was at least $1.3 billion.
In 2015, one UK woman alone lost £1.6 million (approx $2.08 million at today’s exchange rate) to a pair of romance scammers over a period of 10 months.
Historically, there has been little support for victims of scams such as romance fraud, but recent legislation introduced in the UK aims to make it easier for victims to recoup some, if not all of their lost funds.
New rules overseen by the UK’s Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) came into effect on October 7 which means victims can make claims to their banks for up to £85,000 ($110,567), provided the money was sent as an authorized push payment (bank transfer) and the transaction was between two UK banks. Transactions sent overseas are not covered.
The PSR said this route will be successful in over 99 percent of eligible cases and victims will be reimbursed within five working days.
For losses of over £85,000, claims can be made to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which has a compensation limit of up to £430,000 ($559,281).
Over in the US, the FTC takes the same “go and tell your bank” approach, since it may be able to reverse a transaction if reported quickly enough, however, there are no guarantees of success.
Credit card transactions offer the greatest protections but, knowing this, scammers usually demand bank transfers instead. These cases are less likely to result in reimbursement, which is why public awareness campaigns about scams and how to spot them are delivered often. Prevention is better than cure, as they say.
While protections for scam victims are slowly becoming more robust, how resilient they are to criminal evolutions may be tested in the coming years.
The UK’s artificial intelligence institute warned this week that the UK is woefully under-equipped to counter AI-enabled cybercrime, naming romance fraud specifically as a problem that could be exacerbated as criminals get to grips with the latest off-the-shelf AI tools.
The Alan Turing Institute’s Centre for Emerging Technology and Security said AI presented the opportunity to empower scammers with greater powers of persuasion, and make it easier for non-native speakers to build the required rapport with victims, ultimately making their frauds more successful.
Given that the PSR’s new rules for reimbursing victims only apply when criminals are also located in the UK, the threat of AI-enabled crime for overseas scammers could lead to fewer and fewer victims recovering their lost money. ®
