$300K Internet Romance Scam Sends Silver Spring Man to Prison

SILVER SPRING, MD — A Silver Spring man who combed online dating sites to target men and women from whom he stole about $300,000 will spend several years in prison, federal prosecutors say.

Evans Appiah, also known as Sean Carter, 28, was sentenced Monday to seven years in prison, followed by four years of supervised release, for conspiracy, mail and wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft as punishment for an internet romance scheme in which the victims were defrauded of more than $300,000. U.S. District Judge George J. Hazel also ordered Appiah to forfeit and pay restitution of $303,800.11, the total amount of the loss.

According to trial testimony, Appiah and his co-conspirators searched online dating websites and initiated romantic relationships with men and women in order to obtain money from them. The relationships began with emails and instant messaging and escalated to telephone calls and primarily text messages.

After gaining the victims' trust, Appiah and his co-conspirators began asking for money for various reasons, often invoking false stories and promises to convince the victims to send them money, prosecutors said in a news release.

According to evidence presented at his May trial, from December 2013 through June 2015, Appiah opened and maintained accounts in order to receive money from the victims. Once the victims had deposited the money requested by Appiah and the co-conspirators into the accounts he controlled, Appiah disbursed the money by transferring it to other accounts, withdrawing cash, and by purchasing goods for shipment to co-conspirators outside of the United States.

Authorities say at least 11 confirmed victims lost more than $300,000 in the scam.

Appiah also used the name and identifying information of one victim in particular, while depositing one of the victim cashier’s checks into his own bank account.

Appiah has been detained since Judge Hazel ordered that he be immediately taken into custody following the jury’s guilty verdict on May 4.