A yearlong investigation by CBS News found that scammers have been increasingly successful in leveraging their romantic grip on victims by turning them into unwitting co-conspirators, or “money mules.”
This process of fraudsters manipulating victims into perpetuating their schemes has created a legal minefield for investigators.
The challenge, he said, is that scammers have become better at gaining control over their victims.
Increasingly, he said, that includes instructions to the victim to help the scammers move money.
Leaning on the trust they’ve established, the scammers wire money they’ve stolen from one victim into another victim’s new bank account.
Scammers then instruct the victim to wire that money internationally, withdraw it in cash and have couriers pick it up, or transfer it into a cryptocurrency.
Reda said it’s a challenge to know how best to approach the “money mule” — as a victim or criminal.
Authorities who work to combat scammers said, ultimately, it’s hard not to sympathize with victims who have lost so much.
Laura Kowal was inundated with love notes and had endless phone conversations with a man going by the name of Frank Borg during the initial months of their online relationship. By the second year, those conversations had become transactional and methodical, with Frank teaching Kowal how to create fictitious businesses and bank accounts in order to transfer money.
Kowal’s daughter, Kelly Gowe, clarified, “I think she got so deep into this scam, realized she was being scammed, and when she tried getting out of it, she became what is known in these scams as a’money mule.'”. They managed to ensnare her in it. “.
Law enforcement officials told CBS News that Laura Kowal’s story of being duped into helping foreign scammers move and conceal money, including creating new false profiles for them, is part of a devious new development in the country’s romance scam crisis. Kowal was duped out of her savings and coerced into helping the scammers.
After a year-long investigation, CBS News discovered that con artists have become more adept at using their romantic hold on victims to make them unwitting accomplices or “money mules.”. “.
Researchers are faced with a legal minefield as a result of scammers’ ability to trick victims into continuing their fraudulent schemes. Prosecutors are frequently left to determine how to prosecute individuals who have changed from targets to accomplices, especially if they have engaged in overt fraud or assisted in the money laundering of millions of dollars taken from other people.
Due to the increasing prevalence of this scam strategy, federal agents are now broadcasting alerts advising people to reconsider helping someone they met online move money.
“They’re breaking the law.”.
In an effort to better understand how to address the issue, the FBI has created psychological profiles of “money mules,” according to James Barnacle, head of the agency’s financial crimes division, who spoke with CBS News. He stated that the difficulty lies in the fact that con artists have improved their ability to subjugate their targets.
“The requests keep coming even after the victim gives money. And we observe that the request has grown,” Barnacle remarked.
He stated that this includes giving the victim instructions to assist the con artists in moving money more frequently. Scammers use the trust they have built up to transfer money they have stolen from one victim into the new bank account of another victim.
Barnacle clarified, “They believe it’s business proceeds for their lover.”.
The victim is then given instructions by scammers to either wire the money overseas, withdraw it in cash and have it picked up by courier, or convert it into a cryptocurrency.
He stated, “At that point, they’re committing a crime.”. “Bank fraud has been committed by them. “.”.
Additionally, because the chains of transactions give scammers more power over their victims, they can now make them feel like criminals in order to force them to keep helping.
“Is there any way the bad guy could use that as a hook?” asked Barnacle. They also do. “.
Is the person a criminal or a victim?
Former U.S. s. After looking into a number of romance scams, Postal Inspector Natalie Reda claims that the victims “check their reasoning at the door” because they fell so deeply in love with their con artists. “.
For law enforcement, she said, the dynamics are complex. They are dealing with a weak individual who has been duped by a cunning actor, on the one hand. However, that individual is also committing crimes that have the potential to harm other people.
Knowing whether to approach a “money mule” as a criminal or a victim can be difficult, according to Reda. She claimed that she always started gently, admonishing people to “Stop doing this.”. That’s a crime you’re doing. “.
Reda said that she speaks to them slowly and warns them, saying, “You could face criminal charges if we have to return. Right now, we’re not going to do anything.”. They’ll continue doing it, she said, quite frequently. ****.
There is no evidence that law enforcement ever gave Laura Kowal a stop warning. Records, however, indicate that they were aware of her. Kowal was “under investigation by federal law enforcement for possible criminal behavior involving the creation of LLCs for money laundering” at the time of her death in 2020, a Missouri Highway Patrol report stated. That summer, Kowal was discovered dead in the Mississippi River; an autopsy revealed that she had drowned.
After discovering her mother’s trail of actions, her daughter came to the conclusion that her mother had opened bank accounts, made up dating profiles, and even purchased a burner phone so they could communicate. She thinks Kowal was intimidated and forced to work for the con artists.
Gowe expressed his sadness at the fact that she was eventually engaging in unlawful activities. However, I think that she was acting in that way because she felt compelled to. There was not another option. that she was required by law to comply with the scammers’ requests. “.
“A dumb-ass plan.”.
Three residents of the Chicago suburbs actually received one of Kowal’s first payments of $75,000, which was made at “Frank’s” request, law enforcement officials claim. Two of the men, Samuel Aniukwu and Anthony Ibekie, both citizens of Nigeria, have been charged by the authorities, along with Jennifer Gosha, an American, who they claim assisted the men in opening bank accounts and transferring funds.
According to the criminal complaints filed against the three, covert agents secretly recorded them engaging in romance-fraud and various other schemes. According to investigators, victims lost at least $750,000 as a result of the trio’s scams.
In July 2023, Aniukwu entered a guilty plea to charges of wire fraud and money laundering. As a condition of his plea, he committed to providing assistance to the prosecution. The date of his sentencing has not yet been determined, but he could receive a maximum sentence of 30 years in jail. In the meantime, June is the scheduled trial date for Gosha and Ibekie, who have both entered not guilty pleas.
Earlier in January, Gosha, a U. S. Post office worker and Iraq War veteran, she came to court with the intention of pleading guilty. She testified in court that her military service had caused her to experience post-traumatic stress disorder. She pulled out of the agreement after the judge informed her that entering a guilty plea would turn her into a felon and jeopardize her post-office pension.
In an interview with CBS News, Gosha revealed that she had been seeing Ibekie, whom she mistook for a doctor from Nigeria, and that she intended for them to start a family. She stated that as they became more intimate, Ibekie started requesting her to assist him.
She said, “You know, like things that people in relationships do.”. “Can you come by and get it? My car is in the shop; can you come get me? Stuff like that,” Gosha said. “Can you pick up my dry cleaning? Can you order this thing from Macy’s?”.
She claimed that as time went on, the requests got more complex. However, she said that she kept believing him “because he was dressed nicely, had a fantastic house, drove a Mercedes truck, and claimed to be a doctor when I met him.”. ****.
She claimed that she felt imprisoned and like a different kind of victim after being detained on suspicion of plotting with Ibekie. Gosha asked CBS News, “If I’m someone who’s ‘complicit’ in it, why am I left here not with 50 cents?”.
She could get a 30-year sentence if found guilty. Gosha said that she felt powerless to defend herself against the serious accusations made by the government.
“I went to school, raised my kids, and participated in the Iraq War. “After everything I’ve done in my life, I’m not someone who decides, ‘Now I’m going to be a criminal mastermind?'” Gosha stated in an interview conducted outside her modest Chicago garden apartment. “I won’t come up with this ridiculous plan if I do come up with one. “.
As she told CBS News, Gosha does consider what happened to the people whose lives were destroyed by the money that went through her boyfriend’s accounts. She insists, though, that “I didn’t ‘play a part in it’ knowingly. “.”.
An obstacle for the nearby law enforcement authorities.
Many local police officers told CBS News they are deeply frustrated by the lack of options to address the constant flow of complaints they receive, often from the adult children of divorced or widowed victims. These cases are particularly taxing for the police because of the volume and complexity of the scams.
The head of the International Association of Financial Crime Investigators, retired police officer Mark Solomon, said he has heard of victims being turned away by police, either because they do not feel sorry for a victim handing over their money to a stranger or because they do not see a way to solve a crime that originates halfway around the world.
Solomon stated, “Many people who have the guts to report this are being turned away.”. This is the new wave of money laundering, so we need to train more local detectives and investigators in this area.”. “.
Laura Kowal’s body was discovered in Lewis County, Missouri, and the sheriff there, David Parrish, speculates that scams may be becoming more prevalent than the capacity of law enforcement to stop them.
Parrish stated, “We deal with online romance scams every other week; they’re a scourge.”. “We are chasing our tails all the time. In this regard, we are constantly falling behind. Always. ****.
It’s difficult not to feel sympathy for victims who have suffered such great losses, according to authorities who fight scammers.
Everything seems to point toward the same conclusion: They are merely optimistic. Reda, the retired postal inspector, stated, “It’s love, someone loves them.”. It is really depressing. Really, it is. It is difficult to watch. “.
This story was supported by investigative reporters Clare Hymes and Alyssa Spady of CBS News.
Please share your store with us at RomanceScams@CBSNews.com if you or someone you know has fallen victim to a romance scam.
