Hajia 4Real Extradited to US For $2M Romance Scam Targeting Older, Single Americans – Full Details
A Ghanaian social media influencer has been extradited from the United Kingdom to the US for allegedly swindling over $2 million from older, single American men and women in a twisted lonely hearts scam, federal prosecutors said Monday.
Mona Faiz Montrage, 30, of Accra, Ghana, appeared in Manhattan federal court Monday for her alleged involvement in a series of romance schemes targeting older people who lived alone, prosecutors said.
Hajia 4Real Extradited to US For $2M Romance Scam Targeting Older, Single Americans – Full Details
Montrage — who had around 3.4 million Instagram followers of her page Hajia4Reall at one point — from at least 2013 through 2019 was involved with a group of con artists from West Africa who assumed fake identities to trick people into thinking they were in relationships with them using emails, texts and social media messages, the feds said.
The scammers would then get the victims to transfer money to them under false pretenses — such as to help move gold to the US from overseas, to resolve bogus FBI investigations and payments to help fake US Army officers in Afghanistan, court papers allege.
Montrage, in one case, allegedly duped a victim into sending her $89,000 through 82 wire transfers on the pretext of helping her father’s farm in Ghana, the court documents claim.
She tricked the person into believing the pair were married by sending them a tribal marriage certificate after a series of phone conversations using her real identity, the filing alleges.
