Police Foil Big Money 'Romance Scam' in Wilton

WILTON, CT — Police arrested a Nigerian man for larceny and identity theft on Friday.

Wilton police were tipped off to a "possible shipment of a large amount of money" to a vacant house in Wilton. The shipment was linked to a "romance scam" in Mississippi. Con artists would meet their victim on a dating website, gain their trust through a fake relationship, and then obtain personal and banking information from them. At that point the scammers were in a position to get the victim to send them large amounts of money or steal the money from their accounts.

Wilton police established surveillance of the vacant residence and apprehended Olutade Adeyemi Gboyega when he picked up the package from the residence. The package that he thought he was picking up contained over $23,000 in cash. Olutade is from Nigeria here in the US on a work visa and claimed to be picking the package up for his brother who lives in Nigeria.

Olutade was transported to the Wilton Police Department where he was charged with firstdegree conspiracy to commit larceny and first-degree identity theft. He was processed and held on $50,000 bond.

Olutade was released by the Bail Commission on Sunday and is scheduled to appear in Norwalk Superior Court on May 17.