14 DAY TRIAL // A total of eight people accused of being involved in an online dating scam and other Internet schemes have been sentenced in the United Kingdom. The scammers are said to have tricked at least 70 people from other countries into sending them over £750,000 ($1.24 million / €911,000).
Their operations came to light when a New York woman filed a complaint with the police after being tricked by a man, who pretended to be Italian, into sending him £7,700 ($12,815 / €9,359). He claimed to be in love with the woman and asked for the money so that he could move to the US with her.
Authorities traced the money to the account of 36 year-old Minhaj Uddin. An investigation has revealed that Uddin’s sister, 25-year-old Rumana Begum, and his brother, Muhiudd Jaber, were also involved.
In addition to online dating scams, the gang also operated lottery scams. In one instance, they tricked a victim into going to the UK to collect his “winnings.” When he arrived, the victim was given a bag of black pieces of paper and a chemical.
The black pieces of paper were allegedly Euro bills and the crooks told the victim that the chemical could be used to wash them.
Jaber was sentenced to two years in prison, while Uddin received 16 months. Their sister got 1 month of supervised release and 150 hours of unpaid community work.
The other fraudsters are Anthony Ekpunobi (sentenced to 42 months), Arfan Sawar (16 months), Abdul Chowdhury (12 months), Mazarhull Quddus (12 months suspended), and Fahima Ruhi (18-month community order with a 12-week nighttime curfew).
Two other people have been convicted for being part of the operation. They will be sentenced later this month.