A Nigerian man has been sentenced to more than 26 years in a US federal prison for a real estate phishing scam campaign that resulted in approximately $12m in losses for victims.
Kolade Akinwale Ojelade, a 34-year-old Nigerian national living in Leicester, UK, pleaded guilty to wire fraud affecting a financial institution and aggravated identity theft, resulting in a combined prison sentence of 316 months.
Ojelade has also been ordered to pay $3.38m in restitution by the Texas District Court.
Prosecutors believe the intended losses from the campaign was $100m.
Ojelade was indicted by the US in February 2023 before being extradited from the UK in April 2024.
He will be subject to deportation from the US after serving his sentence.
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Man-in-the-Middle Phishing Scam
According to the court documents, Ojelade combined email phishing attacks with a ‘man-in-the-middle’ technique to intercept large payments and direct them to accounts he controlled.
Man-in-the-middle refers to cyber-attackers who compromise accounts to secretly monitor and relay messages between two parties, with the goal of stealing personal data, identity theft or fraud.
The attacks would begin with phishing emails sent to real estate businesses in the US, which aimed to gain access to many of the company email accounts.
Once access was gained to these accounts, Ojelade would monitor their email traffic to determine when large transactions were about to take place.
This enabled him to identify and intercept wire payments by changing the payment instructions and resending the email via spoofed emails addresses that mimicked the original senders’ addresses.
These changes meant that prospective homeowners trying to send money to real estate companies and real estate companies attempting to wire money to title companies instead sent the funds to accounts controlled by Ojelade and his co-conspirators. Once the money was received in these accounts, the attackers withdrew the funds or transferred them to other bank accounts.
US Attorney Leigha Simonton commented: “Even the most conscientious among us could get taken in by a man-in-the-middle scam as devious as this one. Luckily, there are steps we can take to protect ourselves, including confirming wiring instructions in person or by phone.”
“For the next quarter-century, Mr. Ojelade will be behind bars, no longer able to scam innocent homebuyers. We are proud to hold him accountable for his crimes.”