An Indiana man is charged with scamming a Millersville man of $70,000, posing as a titling company and requesting funds in a wire transaction to close on a property.
Millersville Borough police Det. Sgt. Jason Scott charged 30-year-old Jeremiah Kumyitatah Konfor with felony counts of dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities and theft by deception.
Konfor was arrested earlier this month in Caldwell, Texas, and since extradited back to Pennsylvania. Konfor is at Lancaster County Prison on $50,000 bail.
The time-consuming investigation involved identifying Konfor and how he was able to hack into the email exchange which the victim believed to be with the titling company – with whom he had legitimate business.
The arrest process also took time as Konfor has ties to Maryland, Vermont, North Carolina and Texas, in addition to Indiana.
The investigation began in February of 2017 when Millersville Borough police met with the victim in reference to a fraud report. The victim advised he was in the process of purchasing a property and conducting business with his title company, via emails, to set up his payment.
During the course of these emails, he received an email from what he believed to be the titling company requesting $70,000 wire transfer for closing on the property. The money was sent and the email was later determined to be fraudulent.
The victim contacted the titling company and learned they had not received or distributed the $70,000. The investigation revealed the fraudulent email was an elaborate online scam whereby Konfor posed as the titling company and utilized an email address that appeared legitimate but was in fact altered by one character.
Through the course of the investigation, Konfor was identified as the possessor of the account where the $70,000 ended up. Also, Konfor was observed on video surveillance in Maryland making a withdrawal from the account, then making large purchases at a department store, using the account funds.
The victim told police he did not know Konfor nor did he ever have interaction with him. It was also determined that Konfor was not in any way associated with the titling company or property purchase.
All person accused of a crime are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
MEDIA CONTACT: Brett A. Hambright, 717-295-2041; bhambright@co.lancaster.pa.us; Twitter: @BrettHambright