TWO Nigerian men have been arrested in Suwon, South Korea, for allegedly swindling South Korean victims, mostly women, of thousands of dollars in romance scams, local police have disclosed.
According to the Gyeonggi Nambu Police Agency, the suspects defrauded four South Koreans, three women and one man of about 120 million won ($107,900) in total after the two befriended the victims online under fake identities.
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 and a female U.S. soldier to trick one woman and a man, police said.
The police said they were yet to confirm whether the suspects were working together as both men had denied the charges.
The Gyeonggi Nambu Police Agency is currently looking into 57 romance scam cases reported since January and will expand the probe to see if the cases involve any larger fraud organisations.
