Six women thought they had found love online. Two married fathers scam them from millions
A Massachusetts woman believed she had a dedicated relationship with “Williams Moore.” The New Jersey woman did too, as did the New Jersey woman who fell head overhead due to her boyfriend, Manuel Sykes. A Florida woman met “Edward Novac” online and believed him when he told her he was working in Cyprus.
After all, they were all “dating” with the same guy. He was the married father of two young boys in Nigeria, working in real estate and had a background in network marketing and sales.
His real name? Charles Uchenna Nwadavid. He pleaded guilty in Boston in June, pleading guilty to postal fraud charges, money laundering and money laundering assistance and be liability.
According to Court documentsnwadavid was running Romance scamcriminals often love the loneliness of older people and love people to quickly acquire people on dating apps and social media. The target is often vulnerable women. Romance scams have boomed during the pandemic and have since haunted people over 60 years of age. FBInearly 18,000 complaints about romance scams in 2024, with around 7,600 casualties. Over 60 years old. The losses resulting from that age cohort totaled $389 million last year, total losses across all age groups $672 million.
66 year old Montana woman I was involved He told authorities that he lost more than $90,000 in nearly five months in 2024 in another romance scam named Rita. She said she was vulnerable and almost obsessed with the texts she gained from her romantic partner because of her divorce.
“To me, these texts were like medicine,” she said. “Yeah, I needed them to live.”
Now they make her sick and she says she feels like she has lost her heart and soul by being deceived in a fake relationship.
“Hidewitness is always 20-20,” Rita told the FBI, according to June. video. “But I didn’t think of it as my brain, I was thinking it in my mind.”
In addition to Nwadavid, authorities in June were declared 5 people Because they run a $17 million romance and investment fraud ring. Similarly, a Missouri woman confirmed it last month support The Nigerian romance scam won $1 million and involved at least one casualty in his early 70s.
Like other romance scams, Nwadavid never met any of the six women involved in romance scams in person and communicated with them only through email and text. As part of the plan and to continue to hide herself, authorities said Nwadavid opened a crypto account in Bitcoin, the first victim, one of three Massachusetts women. (Bitcoin of America is a Chicago-based crypto exchange that has since been suspended.) Nwadavid accessed his account and transferred the funds to a Bitcoin wallet he managed.
From there, Nwadavid used Massachusetts women as “money mules” to raise illegal funds from other unsuspecting women. From January 2019 to June 2019, a New Jersey woman sent $896,000 to Moneyraba on behalf of her boyfriend Manuel Sykes. The Florida woman sent $235,000. Another Massachusetts woman sent about $276,000. The fifth woman sent $230,000, while the sixth sent $239,100.
Five women were told that their “boyfriend” was seriously injured in an oil-dressing fire and that they needed Bitcoin to pay for medical expenses. The sixth woman who lived in Great Bend, Kansas believed that her boyfriend, Clarence Manning, had inherited $2 million from her father, but she needed to travel to Spain to collect it. He later claimed he was hospitalized overseas.
At that point, Nwadavid is allegedly deceived his first woman, his Moneyraba, to transfer the $2.5 million he collected from five other women to his crypto account. Nwadavid is said to have since moved 210 bitcoins from his brokerage account to two other accounts.
Nwadavid’s lawyer did not respond Fortune Request a comment. Authorities declined to comment as the incident is still pending.
His ruling is scheduled for September.