Scammers working with a Nigerian money launderer used fake social media identities to court older Americans, convinced them they had a future together, and then pressed them for money to cover supposedly urgent needs, the Justice Department said on Sept. 22. Olamide Shanu, 35, pleaded guilty in Idaho federal court to conspiracy to commit money laundering tied to romance and sextortion schemes that hit about 150 U.S. victims. Prosecutors say Shanu made more than $2.5 million from the fraud.
How the Fake Romances Were Built
According to the Justice Department, Shanu and his co-conspirators used fake identities on social media to contact victims who were “typically older women and men.” They established deceptive emotional relationships, gained the victims’ trust and persuaded them that they had a romantic future together. Once that trust was in place, the scammers convinced victims to send money based on “various purportedly urgent needs for funds.”
The same network ran a separate sextortion scheme, typically aimed at men, in which co-conspirators persuaded victims to send sexual images and then threatened to share them with friends and family unless they paid. Money from both schemes was laundered through peer-to-peer payment apps and several cryptocurrency wallet addresses before it was transferred to co-conspirators in Nigeria.
“Criminals, like Olamide Shanu, who prey on vulnerable victims in this manner rob them of their savings and sense of decency,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
When a new love interest needs money fast: The pattern in the Shanu case, trust first and an emergency later, is easier to interrupt with a plan agreed on in advance with family. Inside the kit are the first-hour recovery plan, the family code word, the free credit-freeze steps and a fraud evidence and report log, in The Senior Fraud Defense & First-Hour Recovery Kit.
From London Arrest to Idaho Guilty Plea
Shanu entered his plea on Sept. 21 in the District of Idaho. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 15 and faces up to 20 years in prison, with the final sentence to be set by a federal judge under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.
The case began with an indictment in Idaho. Authorities in London arrested Shanu on Nov. 7, 2023, and he was extradited from the United Kingdom in September 2025. At the time, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Idaho said the indictment charged him with eight counts, including wire fraud conspiracy, aggravated identity theft and money laundering conspiracy, and alleged he had obtained at least $2 million. The office said he would also face restitution for victims’ losses if convicted.
U.S. Attorney Bart M. Davis said the extradition and plea send “a clear message that those who exploit victims and launder millions in illicit proceeds will face serious consequences.” The U.S. Secret Service and the Boise Police Department investigated. Senior Counsel Vasantha Rao of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Brittney Campbell and Sean Mazorol are prosecuting the case, which is part of the department’s Cyber-Enabled Scam Initiative.
That initiative is a dedicated team of prosecutors assigned to find scammers who target Americans, disrupt their networks and trace their money for forfeiture. The department said its Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section has secured more than 180 convictions since 2020 and court orders for the return of more than $350 million in victim funds. No seizure or claims process has been announced in the Shanu case.
Romance Fraud Losses Among Older Adults Are Climbing
The Shanu case is one piece of a much larger problem. The FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report shows people 60 and older filed 10,188 confidence and romance fraud complaints last year and reported losses of about $584 million. That compares with 7,626 complaints and about $389 million in 2024, and 6,740 complaints and about $357 million in 2023.
Across all crime types, Americans 60 and older filed 201,266 complaints with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center in 2025 and reported $7.7 billion in losses, more than any other age group. The FBI defines confidence and romance fraud as schemes in which a person believes they are in a family, friendly or romantic relationship and is tricked into sending money, personal information or items of value, or into laundering money for the perpetrator. The category includes the grandparent scheme.
The FBI’s definition points to a second risk for older victims: being drawn into moving money for a scammer. A person who believes a relationship is real may be asked to receive and forward funds, which can create problems with their own banks on top of the money they lose.
The Warning Signs of an Online Romance Scam
The Federal Trade Commission says romance scammers tailor their stories to what they think will work. According to its guidance on romance scams, they often claim they cannot meet in person because they are working overseas, on an oil rig, in the military or with an international organization. Once trust is built, they ask for help paying medical bills, a plane ticket, a visa or fees to get out of trouble, and some steer victims toward cryptocurrency investing.
Scammers also dictate how to pay, according to the FTC, typically by wire transfer, gift cards, money transfer apps or cryptocurrency, because those methods are fast and hard to reverse. The agency’s rule is to never send money or gifts to someone who has not been met in person. It recommends stopping contact, talking with a trusted friend or relative, and running a reverse image search on the person’s profile photo.
Anyone who has already paid should contact the bank or payment company immediately and ask for a refund, then report the fraud at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and to the platform where the contact began. People 60 and older can also call the Justice Department’s National Elder Fraud Hotline at 833-FRAUD-11 (833-372-8311).
Protecting Savings From a Relationship That Is Not Real
The victims in this case were not careless; they were persuaded over time by people using invented identities, and the requests came only after trust was established. For an older adult living alone or recently widowed, those conversations can feel genuine right up to the moment money is requested.
The Senior Fraud Defense & First-Hour Recovery Kit includes the family code word for checking an urgent request with a relative, the first-hour recovery plan for the moments after a transfer, and a fraud evidence and report log for saving profiles, messages and payment details.
Each of those steps is laid out in The Senior Fraud Defense & First-Hour Recovery Kit.
This article was prepared with AI assistance and reviewed against the linked official sources.
