Lagos — An Ikeja High Court judge, Justice Morenike Obadina, was yesterday told how an Advanced Fee Fraud a.k.a. 419 scam allegedly involving Internet-based payment for some cameras, using bad credit cards, led a United States company to the verge of bankruptcy.

Matter was however adjourned by the trial judge till February 4 & 7 to allow EFCC produce other witnesses in the fresh case.

Above information was disclosed by Mr. Dale Miskell, Supervisor Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the United States of America (USA), while giving evidence in a trial involving Hassan Abiodun (alias Tina Linda) for his role alongside one Oladele Dickson in the alleged scam.

Abiodun (said to be an under-graduate of Lagos State University) was arraigned before Justice Obadina by Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a 2-count charge of conspiracy to obtain goods by false pretence and obtaining goods by false pretence, contrary to Sections 8(a) and 1(3) of the Advanced Fee Fraud Act of 1995.

He was alleged to have fraudulently obtained a parcel containing three cameras worth $500 from Daves Cameras, California USA, on April 22, 2004, by placing order through Internet and paying for such order with a bad credit card.

The parcel was said to be the sixth package ordered from Daves Cameras and delivered to Abiodun under the pseudonym 'Tina Linda' at his Forsythe Street, Lagos Island address, by the United Parcel Service (UPS).