Suspects in $6 million romance scam targeting women extradited to U.S.

Six Nigerian nationals linked to an organized criminal network that allegedly swindled American women out of more than $6 million through online romance scams will be extradited to the United States on Friday, South African police said.

The men, who were arrested in the South African city of Cape Town in 2021, are set to be handed over to officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Friday and taken to the U.S. to face wire fraud and money laundering charges.

They are accused of belonging to a criminal network known as the Black Axe, which Interpol describes as being part of criminal groups responsible for a significant share of the world's cyber-enabled financial fraud, typically through romance scams, cryptocurrency and investment scams.

The move comes less than two years after a prominent leader of the Black Axe was extradited to the U.S. for conspiring to engage in internet scams and money laundering.

According to South African police, the men are alleged to have targeted more than 100 women in the U.S., defrauding them of more than $6 million through online romance or love scams.

Among the alleged victims were pensioners and businesspeople who were reportedly targeted through sophisticated online relationships, police said in a statement.

"Through the coordination of Interpol South Africa, the six will today be transported from a correctional facility in Cape Town to Cape Town International Airport, where they will be handed over to officials from the FBI and the United States Secret Service, who arrived in South Africa this morning," said police spokesperson Katlego Mogale.

A recent operation by Interpol targeting West African organized crime groups led to the arrest of 58 people and the identification of 263 suspects linked to various criminal networks involved in similar crimes, the multinational police body said last month.

The operation aimed to disrupt money laundering, identify high-value targets, seize assets and support arrests and prosecution.

In South Africa, authorities raided seven locations in the city of Johannesburg linked to a syndicate that ran romance and investment scams targeting retirees in English-speaking countries.

In that operation in South Africa, police arrested 39 people, seized $2.67 million and froze more than 250 bank accounts, Interpol said.

More than 64,000 Americans were taken for over $1 billion in romance scams in 2023— double the $500 million just four years earlier, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

In 2024, a CBS News investigation uncovered a large-scale romance scam operation in Ghana.

"I fish everywhere in the world," a syndicate boss in Ghana who called himself Voodu told CBS News. But he said of the easiest victims to catch, "They are Americans."