乔治亚州男子奥迪博网恋诈骗获刑33个月：4名受害者损失合计35.65万美元
美国司法部纽约西区联邦检察官办公室宣布，现年53岁、住在乔治亚州石山市（Stone Mountain）的斯蒂芬·奥迪博（Stephen Odiboh）因共谋实施电信诈骗，被联邦地区法官查尔斯·J·西拉古萨（Charles J. Siragusa）判处33个月监禁，并须向受害者赔偿196,500美元。检方指，奥迪博在2023年至2025年3月间通过社交媒体和交友网站冒充他人行骗，4名受害者实际损失与企图损失合计356,500美元。
案情显示，第一名受害者是住在纽约西区的77岁女性。2023年，她在脸书上结识自称美国公民、鳏夫、住在挪威的「奥利弗·威尔逊」，两人发展出近一年半的网恋关系。她先后寄出约30张每张500美元的礼品卡、合计约15,000美元，只为让对方「保持在线」；2024年1月至7月，她又寄出8张支票、总额超过162,000美元，其中两张收款人是奥迪博本人。2024年12月，她被告知「威尔逊」在挪威被海关扣留、需缴纳158,000美元罚款，所幸银行拦截了相关支票。
第二名受害者是一名餐饮业者，2024年4月收到自称「亚历克斯·阿尔贝托」的虚假订餐订金：一张2,800美元的支票，对方要求她用Zelle退回2,000美元；她察觉有诈，没有存入支票。第三名受害者在交友网站结识「威廉·里维拉」，于2024年8月14日通过CashApp向奥迪博转了2,000美元。第四名受害者在2025年3月结识自称在巴林工作的「亚历克·乔纳斯」，电汇17,525美元为对方「运货到德克萨斯州」。
此案由联邦调查局（FBI）与国税局刑事调查处（IRS-CI）联合侦办，联邦检察官迈克尔·迪贾科莫（Michael DiGiacomo）对外公布，助理联邦检察官梅根·K·麦圭尔（Meghan K. McGuire）负责起诉。执法部门提醒：网恋对象以礼品卡、电汇等方式索要钱财，是感情诈骗的典型信号，应立即停止联系并报警。
Georgia Man Stephen Odiboh Sentenced to 33 Months for Romance Scam That Cost Four Victims $356,500
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of New York announced that Stephen Odiboh, 53, of Stone Mountain, Georgia, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Charles J. Siragusa to 33 months in prison and ordered to pay $196,500 in restitution after being convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Prosecutors said that from 2023 through March 2025, Odiboh used fake online personas to defraud four victims, whose actual and attempted losses totaled $356,500.
The first victim, a 77-year-old woman in the Western District of New York, met a man calling himself "Oliver Wilson" on Facebook in 2023. Posing as a widowed U.S. citizen living in Norway, he built an online romance lasting about a year and a half. She sent roughly 30 gift cards of $500 each, about $15,000, so he could "stay online," and from January to July 2024 she mailed eight checks totaling more than $162,000, two of them payable to Odiboh. In December 2024 she was told Wilson had been detained by Norwegian customs and needed a $158,000 fine paid; her bank stopped the checks.
A second victim, a caterer, received a fake $2,800 catering-deposit check in April 2024 from "Alex Alberto," who asked her to Zelle back $2,000; she spotted the fraud and never deposited it. A third victim, who met "William Rivera" on a dating site, sent Odiboh $2,000 by CashApp on August 14, 2024. A fourth, who met "Alec Jonas" in March 2025 and was told he worked in Bahrain, wired $17,525 to ship goods to Texas.
The case was investigated by the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Meghan K. McGuire; U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo announced the sentence. Officials warn that an online romantic partner who asks for gift cards or wire transfers is showing a classic sign of romance fraud.
来源：GSM·美国（原文链接）
图片来源：图：位于纽约州罗切斯特的联邦大楼（Wikimedia Commons，Bmzuckerman 摄，CC BY 4.0） / Photo: The federal building in Rochester, New York (Wikimedia Commons, by Bmzuckerman, CC BY 4.0)
