NIGERIA CALLING: American Producer Scammed Out Of USD 3 Million In Online Fraud

An American film producer has been conned out of GBP 2.5 million by a Nigerian fraudster who promised to invest the money, according to reports in Turkish media.

Photo shows Lori Etta Taub, undated photo. She was allegedly scammed USD 3 million by a person living in Istanbul, Turkey. (@loritaub/CEN)

Lori Etta Taub has a string of high-profile credits on TV series like “American Crime”, “Reality Bites” and “All American” where she was listed on IMDB as a producer.

In total, she has 30 credits as a producer going back to the early 1990s, and she currently lives in Northridge, California, where she apparently met the scammers online using social media.

She believed she was speaking to a wealthy investment adviser named Alex Quin, who told her that he would help her invest, and in total, she sent over USD 3 million in cryptocurrency, according to reports in Turkish media.

Photo shows Lori Etta Taub, undated photo. She was allegedly scammed USD 3 million by a person living in Istanbul, Turkey. (@loritaub/CEN)

She was expecting the money that was paid over a course of three months to be returned, but when that failed to happen, she contacted police.

They discovered that Alex Quin did not exist, and the person she had been speaking to was a Nigerian citizen living in Istanbul, named Cyril Amechi E. who has been arrested.

Three other people were also arrested, although details of who they were not revealed.

Photo shows Lori Etta Taub, undated photo. She was allegedly scammed USD 3 million by a person living in Istanbul, Turkey. (@loritaub/CEN)

Police said that after raiding properties, they had confiscated a large number of digital assets and some money.