How one Ukrainian man turned the tables on Nigerian spam

A Ukrainian startup founder named Artem Gerashchenkov living in Los Angeles says he’s succeeded in unmasking a Nigerian spammer who contacted him asking for money. The Nigerian fraudster posed as a woman named Angelina Crane, saying he was an American living in Nigeria.

Corresponding with Gerashchenkov in broken English on VKontakte, “Angelina” asked to receive $50-$60 on a weekly basis, and was flabbergasted when Gerashchenkov offered $500-$600, instead. “Angelina” immediately sent along wire transfer details for an account belonging to a man named Olukade Kehinde Martins, as well as photographs of Martins’ identification.

Rather than send money, however, Gerashchenkov, claiming to be an iPhone distributor, informed “Angelina” that he would send her an iPhone, saying he needed to ship 200 iPhones to the Nigerian city of Lagos. A local mobile phone store had purchased 199 iPhones, Gerashchenkov said, and so “Angelina” would be welcome to keep one for herself and hand over the rest to the store.

Gerashchenkov then explained that it would be difficult to ship an unpaid iPhone with the 199 ordered by the store, so he arranged to have “Angelina” send him the money for one iPhone, with the understanding that she would keep two for herself to cover the cost.

In the end, the spammer ended up wiring his “victim” a total of $600. In return, Gerashchenkov mailed him a photograph of a random Nigerian man, claiming to be a Nigerian-based spammer himself.

Gerashchenkov told Meduza that he later returned the money, saying, “Karma is more important.”