No Love Lost: ICE Nabs Illegal Who Scammed Grandmas In Online Dating Scheme
ICE agents detained an illegal alien from Ghana convicted on 15 counts for stealing more than $8 million through an online dating fraud scheme targeting the elderly, the Department of Homeland Security told The Daily Wire.
Convicted three years ago in Boston, Massachusetts, for defrauding the elderly through fake dating profiles, ICE agents detained Kofi Ib Osei on Tuesday. Osei was convicted in March 2023 on seven counts of false statement to a bank, six counts of wire fraud, aiding and abetting, and two counts of money laundering.
“Kofi Osei is a criminal illegal alien who committed fraud throughout New England,” Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis told The Daily Wire. “On April 6, 2026, ICE arrested Osei from jail and took him into custody in Virginia. This is why we need local cooperation.”
Osei first entered the United States in 2010 and was convicted on March 22, 2023, in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
The indictment against Osei revealed that he targeted victims across the country, from Florida to California, from 2016 to 2020, through a romance scheme that involved tricking individuals into sending money to bank accounts operated by Osei under fake names. This money was then used for buying cars and other personal items, according to the indictment.
To open bank accounts, Osei would use passports from South Africa and Lesotho under various names.
One victim in the indictment included a woman who met Osei on eHarmony under the name “William Karlsen.” They communicated by phone and text, and Osei claimed he needed her to send him money so he could leave the oil rig he claimed to work on to visit her. Eventually, the victim transferred Osei over $200,000, according to the indictment.
A second scheme involved Osei using the name “William Woodcox” and getting money from a woman he targeted on the dating website Plenty of Fish. That victim transferred him around $65,000 to help him after an accident in which he’d claimed to be involved.
In total, the Justice Department said that Osei scammed hundreds of people out of $8 million. He was sentenced to 54 months in prison over the scheme.
Osei was just one of the illegal immigrant criminals arrested this week by ICE.
Others arrested by ICE this week included Pedro Joel Martinez, an illegal alien from El Salvador convicted for aggravated sexual assault of a child under 14-years-old; Miguel Angel Vazquez-Garcia, an illegal alien from Mexico convicted for dealing child pornography in Wilmington, Delaware; Ader Aldair Ramirez-Quiroz, an illegal alien from Honduras convicted for importation of fentanyl in San Diego, California; and Anyeli Carolina Peley-Herrera, an illegal alien from Venezuela convicted for acquisition of personal identification by false authority in Bonneville County, Idaho, according to DHS.
“Yesterday, the heroic men and women of ICE arrested child predators, child rapists, drug traffickers, and other scumbags,” Bis said. “Under President Trump, criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the United States. If you come to our country illegally and break our laws, we will hunt you down, arrest you, deport you, and you will never return.”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.