December 31,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
New Orleans LA, the Nigerian Prince has been found and he is a white guy from New Orleans . Police in New Orleans have arrested a 67-year-old man after he allegedly helped swindle people out of thousands of dollars as a middleman in a “Nigerian prince” Internet scam.
Michael Neu, 67, was a middle-man in a scam that involved co-conspirators in Nigeria, report says. (Slidell Police Department)
Michael Neu, of Slidell, is facing 269 counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering, the New Orleans Advocate reported.
The “Nigerian Prince” phishing scam involves getting an email from a Nigerian official who claims the recipient has been named a beneficiary in a will and will inherit at least $1 million. The victim is then asked to send personal information which is used to con them out of their money.
“Most people laugh at the thought of falling for such a fraud, but law enforcement officials report annual losses of millions of dollars to these schemes,” a police report said.
In Ridgewood variants of this scam seem to be rampant and many residents continue to fall for them.