Pair Arrested in Credit-Card Fraud Case

Two men have been arrested in Thousand Oaks in a credit-card scam believed to be connected to a Nigerian organized-crime ring operating in Southern California, Ventura County sheriff’s detectives said.

Bola Lawl, 29, of Pomona and Akinade Abiola Adejumo, 33, of Inglewood are being held on $1 million bail on felony fraud charges at a Thousand Oaks Boulevard mail-delivery business, deputies said. The pair, who were arrested Wednesday, had picked up fraudulently obtained credit cards that were delivered to a mail-drop box, investigators said.

The two men are Nigerian nationals believed to be living in the U.S. illegally since their temporary visas expired, deputies said.

Ventura County sheriff’s detectives arrested two Nigerian suspects in Cerritos, in Los Angeles County, on the same charges last month and two others in Thousand Oaks in January, 1992.

The men apparently are part of a network of Nigerians who share rip-off techniques and information about the latest police tactics used to track them down, said Det. William Gentry of the East Valley sheriff’s station.

“This particular group is assuming the identity of actual live people and apparently taking information from financial records they’ve gotten their hands on,” Gentry said.

After receiving a fraudulent credit card, the suspects would draw a cash advance on it from a bank, or run up purchases at stores, and then stop using the card before the victim reports the fraud, Gentry said.

“The ultimate loser in all this is consumers like you and I, because the credit-card companies pass their losses on to the public,” Gentry said.

The arrests followed two months of surveillance at mail-drop boxes in the Conejo Valley and at residences in Los Angeles, police said.

Credit-card companies had sent the sheriff’s office credit-card applications believed to be fraudulent, which led to the stakeout of the suspects’ mailbox at a business in the 2500 block of Thousand Oaks Boulevard, Gentry said.

Participants in such scams typically change the mailboxes and cities where they operate frequently, Gentry said. They might keep a box for three months but use it for only one month and then walk away, he said.

“We may see a heavy influx for a while and all of a sudden, they’ll be gone,” Gentry said. “And they may be gone for a year, and all of a sudden, they’ll be back.”

Following the arrest, a search of the suspects’ car turned up 50 keys to mail-drop boxes throughout Southern California, Gentry said. Investigators now are checking the contents of those boxes to determine how many identities the suspects may have assumed, Gentry said.

Until the investigation is finished, police have no way of determining how much money was stolen, Gentry said. “It can be enormous,” he said, adding that the pair had a new car paid for with cash, and one suspect had $1,000 cash in his pocket.