Nigerian authorities help tackle online fraud in Australia

Nigerian authorities have travelled to Perth, West Australia (WA) to help local police combat internet fraud including romance scams, the Australian Associated Press reported.

WA police and the WA State government announced on Tuesday that a memorandum of understanding between the major fraud squad and the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had been signed to tackle online scams.

The EFCC is investigating the death of 67-year-old WA woman Jette Jacobs, who was found dead in a rented villa in Johannesburg in February after she travelled to South Africa to meet a Nigerian man whom she met online.

Authorities believe the man scammed Jacobs out of A$80,000 (RM231,735) during a four-year online romance.

WA fraud squad officers had sent a letter to Jacobs warning her she was the victim of a fraud -- but it arrived after she had left for Africa.

In August, a man was arrested in Nigeria over the attempted fraudulent sale of a house in Falcon, south of Perth.

Six of the seven other cases of successful and attempted property frauds reported in WA in the past five years involved victims who lived in South Africa, had investment properties in Perth that were rented and had their identities stolen.