Nigerian Airline Ticket Fraudster Sentenced to Over Eight Years

A Nigerian national extradited to US in June was sentenced to 102 months in prison for fraudulently acquiring thousands of airline tickets using stolen credit card details and reselling them for profit.

Ademola Ismaila Adegoke, 43, of Accra, Ghana, was arrested on May 5 by the Ghanian police, following an investigation by US law enforcement agencies.

According to court records, Adegoke operated from Internet cafes in Accra and used email and VOIP services to appear as being located in US.

He acquired stolen credit card details from other cybercriminals and used them to buy airline tickets from US and Canadian travel agencies.

In other to deceive travel agents he emailed or faxed copies of passports, driver licenses and credit cards he obtained fraudulently.

Once he identified agents willing to accept his orders, he purchased airline tickets using stolen information and sold them at significantly reduced prices.

According to the authorities, Adegoke abused more than 5,000 credit cards numbers and caused a prejudice of over $400,000.

He was extradited to the United States on June 28, 2010 and pleaded guilty on July 30 to one count of wire fraud and one of aggravated identity theft.

On Friday, in addition to handing him the 102 months in jail sentence U.S. District Court Judge Liam O’Grady also ordered Adegoke to serve two years of supervised release and pay $696,026 in restitution.

The U.S. Secret Service, the Department of State Diplomatic Security Service and the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority collaborated in the investigation. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Airline ticket fraud is one of the many ways used by cybercriminals to monetize stolen identities. Back in June, we reported that eight suspects were arrested for being members of a airline ticket fraud ring responsible for losses of over $20 million.