Internet Scammer Nabbed !

The brazen adventures of a supposed Mutengene-based scammer, whose name The Post got as Roland Obi Ayuk, came to an end Saturday, November 22, when he fell into the hands of the Buea Judicial Police.

Obi Ayuk:'white female doctor' nabbed for scamming

Ayuk, 29, showed up at the Mutengene COFINES money agency to pick up another juicy package from the last of his numerous victims when the police closed in and arrested him.That was the third time the “philanthropist” was going to get money from his Canadian donor to help some “desperate pygmies of the East Region of Cameroon”.

Saturday’s arrest, The Post learnt, put an end to Ayuk’s more than two years Internet scamming enterprise, which consisted mainly of defrauding his victims of several millions of FCFA.The suspect, who was operating under the name Nelly Haddissen Besong, is currently in the custody of the Buea Central Police Station, helping the police with information about his activities.

The last straw that broke his back was Ayuk’s alleged scamming of a Canadian, Harold Ewert.He reportedly defrauded Ewert of FCFA 4 million under the guise of a charitable organisation working with Pygmies in the East Region of the country.

He had reportedly collected the money in two instalments; FCFA 1.9 million and FCFA 2.1 million, and was aiming for the third when the police nabbed him.In both instances, when Ayuk collected the money, he did not use his real identification papers, but a driver’s license bearing his fake name. After his arrest then was his ‘real’ name gotten from a passport he reported produced.

According to the Canadian, he met Ayuk on a Christian website where Ayuk presented himself as a female medical doctor. “I became acquainted with an individual through a Christian website … and she posed as a medical doctor who was originally from Mauritius (of Dutch descent) and was now working among the Pygmy peoples in Cameroon.

She said she was in the process of immigrating to Canada and because she had donated some of her own savings to a water project for the Pygmies, she said she was now short of money. I ended up sending her about FCFA 4,000,000 in two separate payments,” Ewert told The Post.

All through the operation, The Post learnt, the “doctor” had avoided speaking with Ewert but had directed his calls to her pastor, who played the game well.The Post was told that Ayuk, who was himself the pastor, used the same website to defraud several other individuals who fell prey to his fraud.

When Ayuk succeeded in collecting the FCFA 4 million, Ewert, having suspected that he could be a victim of Internet scamming, began to investigate the charitable organisation. He discovered that the organisation was fake and that the female “white” medical doctor was a male fraud.

While he sought help and alerted the Cameroon judicial police, Ayuk continued to press for more money, claiming that the condition of the Pygmies was dire.Ewert told The Post that he got in contact with the Buea Judicial Police who offered to help him.

Under the supervision of the Regional Chief of Judicial Police Southwest, Peter Diangha Adjoffoin, Assistant Chief of Service for Financial and Economic Investigation, Solomon Dibongue Ebwea, arrested the suspect while he tried to collect money from the same agency.

When The Post contacted Adjoffoin and Dibongue, they confirmed the facts of the story and the arrest of the suspect.Besides the arrest of Ayuk, The Post learnt that scores of youths have been arrested in connection with scamming while many others have escaped arrest.

Scamming has become a very lucrative business among youths, especially among university students most of whom have either abandoned studies or graduated and are jobless. Through this new-found medium of getting easy wealth, youths now drive posh cars and own the latest design of mobile phones. In the small University of Buea community, there is a new group of affluent youths who inundate bars on a daily basis and stay all day long in cyber cafes, luring and defrauding gullible people.

Arguably, scamming is one of the most booming and ‘admired’ industry that employs thousands of youths throughout the country. Police sources revealed to The Post that internet scamming greatly tarnishes the image of the country, eroding its credibility. Meanwhile, The Post learnt that it is difficult to charge and prosecute scammers since it is difficult either for the victims (most or all of whom are foreigners) to come to Cameroon and make claims in court or show evidence that they were defrauded by one individual or the other.

 

Source: The Postonline