Oretekor, 43, of Ellenwood, Ga., and Petit-Frere, 47, of Brooklyn, N.Y., were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and six substantive counts of wire fraud. Oretekor was also charged with seven counts of money laundering. According to the indictment, the defendants received funds as a result of an email takeover scam, in which the victims were sent so-called “phishing” emails to capture their usernames and account passwords. The phishing emails were designed to trick victims into clicking on a link that delivered them to a fraudulent website created to look like its legitimate counterpart. When a victim logged into the fraudulent website, her username and password for that account were captured, allowing an imposter to access the victim’s account, review its contents, and send and receive e-mails posing as the victim.
According to the indictment, the fraud began when an imposter, who had gained access to the victim’s email accounts through a phishing email, sent an email from the victim’s Yahoo or Google email account, posing as the victim and directing his or her bookkeeper, financial advisor, or bank officer to transfer funds from the victim’s account. The imposter also set up filters in the victim’s account so that any emails from those persons would go directly to the victim’s “trash” folder. The filters ensured that the victim would not likely see any emails pertaining to the fraudulent transactions. The indictment details how the email takeovers resulted in unauthorized wire transfers of over $500,000 from four victims, and an additional $330,000 in attempted transfers that were identified as fraudulent in time to be reversed.
The indictment further alleges that the defendants used a “Nigerian Scam” scheme against a father and son from New Mexico, stealing over $200,000 from them. The “Nigerian Scam” refers generally to a fraud in which the perpetrator, often posing as a current or former high-ranking official from a foreign government, convinces a victim that he will receive a substantial sum of money in return for paying certain “taxes” or “fees” needed to release that money. In this case, according to the indictment, the defendants represented that they were diplomats attached to the South African embassy and that there was a “consignment box” containing $19M that was “tied up in Customs” but that would be released, and the proceeds split, if the victims paid the necessary “fees” and “taxes.
The indictment further alleges that after the victims in New Mexico ran out of money, the defendants converted them into unwitting “money mules” – a term that refers to persons who receive fraudulent funds into their bank account and distribute them as directed by the fraudsters. The indictment also describes how the defendants were eventually introduced to an undercover officer, who posed as the “cousin” of the New Mexico victims and, through this ruse, as able to deal with the defendants directly.