Yahoo boy to pay N100,000 for defrauding American lady

Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo of an Ikeja Special Offences Court, Lagos, yesterday ordered an internet fraudster (aka yahoo yahoo boy), Abraham Sunday, to pay N100,000 or risk spending one year in jail.

Taiwo gave the order while delivering judgement against Sunday after he exploited the opportunity of a plea bargain agreement with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The convict had pleaded guilty to a two-count of obtaining money by false pretence and possession of fraudulent documents. While delivering the judgement, the judge held that the sentence was to send a message to other youths.

He said: “I have carefully considered the allocutus of the defence counsel, Z. S. Makinde, but this judgement must be given in order to send a message to other young men out there. The defendant is hereby ordered to pay the sum of N100,000 or face a one year prison sentence.” The prosecution counsel, Bikisu Buhari, who urged the court to give judgement accordingly, said that the convict committed the offence sometime in 2017.

Buhari told the court that Sunday defrauded an American lady, Marlene, who he met on a social media network, Interpal. The prosecutor said that Sunday, who used the name Raymond Dondmond, defrauded Marlene on the claims of being an American citizen who deals in export of solid minerals. He said: “Sunday forged the driver’s licence of Texas to convince Marlene of his citizenship.” Meanwhile, in his statement to the EFCC, Sunday said Marlene sent money to him through the Western Union.

The convict added that he communicated with Marlene through WhatsApp with a white man’s picture on his DP. He said: “Marlene has sent me $300 and $280 to support me when I told her I was stuck in Nigeria.

“When I met her online, I told her that I like her and would love to have a relationship with her which she agreed to. I told her I’m an American citizen and that I live in Texas which she believed because of the white man’s picture on my DP. “I told Marlene that she will be helping me to send money through Western Union to Nigeria from my clients in the U.S. I told her the money is to get some samples of solid minerals in Nigeria which she believed.

“After a while, I told her to send me money from her account on a matter of urgency and that I will return it when my clients in the U.S. pay me.” However, the defence counsel, Makinde, in his allocutus, urged the court to temper justice with mercy, adding that the defendant had been remorseful. He said: “My lord, the defendant is a first time offender and we urge your lordship to show him mercy. He is now learning interior decoration and he is a changed person. He has vowed never to do such again and he is sober.”