Man Sentenced to Prison for Role in $8 Million Online Romance Scam

A Massachusetts man convicted of helping steal millions of dollars from hundreds of people in online romance scams, often regaling the victims with stories of oil rig explosions and foreign jails, has been sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison.

Kofi Osei, 30, and his alleged accomplices from 2016 to 2020 targeted mostly older people seeking companionship by creating fake online dating profiles, prosecutors said in a statement Tuesday.

They gradually gained their victims’ trust before directing them to transfer money to one of dozens of bank accounts Osei opened using fake passports, aliases and phony business names, federal prosecutors said in a statement. Once the money was in the bank account, it was quickly withdrawn.

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