WANTED

Katelyn Smith (26 yrs)

Aizeyosabor Osazuwa (23 yrs)

These two are wanted for fraud after cheating a St. Thomas woman out of nearly thirty thousand dollars in a romance scam.
The romance or love scammers prey on emotionally vulnerable people over internet dating sites.  Scammers make several connections with different people and spend all their days communicating online usually showering their victims with attention and messages of affection.  Once a victim believes they are actually in a relationship, empty promises of a long happy life are the hook to bait the victim. But there is always a catch.  The scammer will need money, lots of it, usually for some personal emergency.  A sick family member, a bad business deal, travel expenses, the list goes on.
Victims get caught up in the urgency to free their loved one to fulfill the dream of  being together.   Victims agree to transfer their life savings, send lavish gift cards or receive fraudulent cheques with requests to wire the funds somewhere.  Once the money is sent, the relationship ends.  No more emails, no more messages, facebook pages are deleted, phone numbers are cancelled.
In the end, victims are broke and heat broken.
The best weapon against this crime is education.  The more people know about this kind of scam and the way the scammers work, the less people they will be able to victimize.
In this particular case, the scam was not sophisticated and did not cross continents making it easier for police to actually track down the suspects and lay a charge.  This is the exception to the rule, many of these scammers are based out of Nigeria or Russia making it almost impossible to authorities to track them.
Help us track down SMITH and ASAZUWA.  They are believed to be from the Brampton/Mississauga area.  If you know their whereabouts please contact St. Thomas Police at 519-631-1224 www.stps.on.ca or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS www.stthomascrimestoppers.ca