Ramon Abbas - known to his 2.5 million followers on Instagram as Hushpuppi - has been named by the FBI as the world's biggest cheater facing a 20-year prison sentence in the United States after pleading guilty of money laundering.
The BBC has used new court documents to identify the man who swindled millions of dollars, who began calling himself "Yahoo Boy" a Nigerian seeker calling himself a "Billionaire Gucci Master" living a luxurious life in Dubai before his arrest last year.
The 37-year-old began his fraudulent career in Oworonshoki, a poor coastal area northeast of Lagos, Nigeria.
A local driver by the name of Seye told the BBC that he remembers Abbas as a young man working with his mother at the Olojojo market. His father was a taxi driver.
As he grew older, Seye says, Abbas loved luxury cars: "He was generous and used to buy beer for everyone around him.
But everyone knew that the source of his amazing wealth was online fraud, he was a "Yahoo" man, Seye said.
"Yahoo Boys" are love scammers who took their name in the first free email available in Nigeria.
"They came up with the idea of stealing identity and with that identity, they went on fake online dating programs," said Dr Adedeji Oyenuga, an online theft specialist from the University of Lagos.
When a relationship is formed using a fake identity, these cyber thieves begin to lure their online partners into giving them money.
Like many Yahoo Boys, Abbas added to his criminal network. Most go to Malaysia - and Abbas followed them and ended up in Kuala Lumpur in 2014, then moved to Dubai in 2017.
North Korean kidnappers
This is when he started using his Instagram - and his crime rose to prominence.
In February 2019, he attempted to defraud a $ 15 million stolen by a gang of North Korean hackers from the Maltese bank of the Valley.
Abigail Mamo, head of the Maltese small and middle business courtroom, says scammers planning to relax on the beach make the situation worse.
They loaded the goods into trolleys and left them to the seller if the payment system went off.
"We have received calls from our members telling us they are paying money through Valletta bank to foreign suppliers," she said. Mamo.
"Foreign suppliers did not receive the money ... we are talking about thousands of euros."
The bank managed to secure 10 million euros.
"Damn," Abbas said short messages from fellow scammers were obtained by the FBI.
The response indicated that they had planned another plot: "Another exercise will take place within a few weeks; we will let them know when we are ready. Unfortunately, they were arrested though, the deal would have paid them very well."
Scandal against him
In March 2019, Abbas was given the task of setting up an account in Mexico.
It was to receive £ 100m from the Premier League club's Premier League, and £ 200m from the UK's small factories.
But it was not written in the court documents.
The scammers used Business Email Compromise (BEC).
It was terrifying how BEC does make fake payments using e-mail that seems to have come from the perpetrator himself.
Just one letter or number can make a difference.
The BEC network is often involved in earning a living by sending fake emails similar to those of a company but the only difference is in the number one.
Fraud in the email sent sends a message informing the person that the company in question has changed the bank to send the money and therefore requires him to use another account.
The Bank Clerk was defrauded by online thieves after the request was made thinking it came from someone who knew him, was used, and says you are being used on your communication device and when you click once, all the money is lost.
But the fraud perpetrated while the cybercriminals tried to use the Prime Minister's name could not be done after Banks in the UK boycotted the payment. "Brother I can't send from England to Mexico," Abbas sent the message.
Jon Shilland, the Internet Corruption Officer and National Agency in the United Kingdom says it is not easy to track down the scourge of fraudulent crimes that occur due to the laws of many countries. Dubai-Barney Almazar's lawyer.
"We can't say 100% that Hushpuppi is behind it," Mr. Almazar says.
"But if you look at the bank accounts that the police have tracked down, they are all the records obtained by the police in their raid [at Hushpuppi's home in Dubai]."
A British man who was robbed, who declined to be named, says he lost £ 500,000, has been forced to leave the United Arab Emirates - and is facing a criminal case in Dubai because of a debt he has earned as fraud.
"His clients understand that he was cheated," Mr Almazar explains.
"But they also have to get rid of the losses, so at the moment he doesn't know how to get back to the United Arab Emirates. His whole life was there and his family is still in Arabia. He fears he could be arrested as soon as he enters immigration offices."
Mr. Almazar says it is a shame to prevent victims of Hushpuppi's fraud from coming forward.
"His fraud was of a very high standard. People with his education were deceived. Some are reluctant to accept what happened."
Qatar school fraud
Abbas's last major scam before his arrest in Dubai in June 2020 was a direct robbery, borrowed from the Yahoo boy's sexual fraud.
He thought of a New York bank identity to catch his a fraudster, a Qatari businessman seeking a $ 15m loan to build a new school in the Gulf state.
Between December 2019 and February 2020, Abbas and a gang of alleged middle-class people in Kenya, Nigeria, and the United States plotted to defraud him of more than $ 1 million.
Other scams included the purchase of a watch worth $ 230,000
But tensions between the gang began.
One member threatened to report the entire network as he was pleased with the money he had received.
Abbas was determined to silence him as best he could.
He sent a message to Nigerian police officer Abba Kyari - saying: "I want to give him the most torture in his life.
"I want to use ela for this young man to stay in jail for a very long time."
Mr. Kyari allegedly arrested the boy on false charges and spent a month in jail in Nigeria.
And now Mr. Kyari is also wanted in the United States on charges of fraud, embezzlement, and identity theft.
He previously denied involvement in Abbas's fraud - and did not respond to a BBC request for comment.
His Instagram still attracts followers
BEC fraud is a major issue in the world.
According to the FBI, by 2020 the BEC fraud resulted in a loss of $ 1.8bn.
Court documents allege Abbas's crimes cost the victims nearly $ 24m in total. But some believe the real total could be bigger.
On Instagram, "Billionaire Gucci Master" to "Architect" almost eight months before his arrest and later transferred to the United States to be charged.
Despite her confession of money laundering in April, her Hushpuppi social networks are still active and appealing to many followers.
We contacted Instagram to ask why his account was still open. A social media platform told the BBC that it had checked its account - but decided not to close it.
Just days after asking that question on Snapchat, which deleted the Hushpuppi account.
Dr. Oyenuga says Hushpuppi's influence lasts as he is still considered a role model:
"We live in a world where many young people are suffering. They see another young man who was like them and became very rich.
"I've seen parents who have taken their children learn how to become 'Yahoo boys' partners."
Seye says everyone knows Hushpuppi has committed a crime, but it is understandable: "No one begs to be poor. So when you see a rich person, you will ask God to give you some kind of riches.
He represents about 25 people - including eight British nationals - in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), all of whom are believed to be victims of Hushpuppi's BEC fraud.
