Nigerian man held for allegedly scamming 82-year-old woman

A 48-year-old Nigerian man, who allegedly reached out to an 82-year-old woman telling her he is her long-lost godson, has been charged with tricking the woman out of $128,500. Charleson Obasoanya, of El Soccorro, has also been charged with two counts of money laundering amounting to $48,000.

He appeared before Port of Spain magistrate Adia Mohammed on Monday.

The woman told police that in July 2019, she answered several phone calls and messages from a man pretending to be her long-lost godson from the United Kingdom. She then made payments totalling $284,851.10 to various bank accounts including $128,500 to a bank account held in the name of a business.

In a release on Tuesday, the police said bank staff became suspicious and told the woman she was possibly the victim of a scam.

Fraud squad officers investigated and arrested a man at a bank in Port of Spain on May 13. The man was attempting to withdraw $50,000 from a business account into which the woman had deposited money.

Obasoanya was charged by PC Ramsankar on Friday last week.

He has been remanded into custody until Wednesday when the matter is scheduled to come up for hearing again.