A woman in western New York was 77 when a stranger on Facebook introduced himself as a widower living in Norway. Over about 18 months she sent him roughly 30 gift cards and mailed eight checks totaling over $162,000. A federal judge has now sentenced the Georgia man who received some of that money in the romance scam to 33 months in prison.
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The widower who did not exist
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of New York said that Stephen Odiboh, 53, of Stone Mountain, Georgia, was sentenced on Oct. 8, 2026. He was also ordered to pay $196,500 in restitution. Odiboh worked with co-conspirators, and prosecutors say one of them posed as “Oliver Wilson,” a widower in Norway.
The plea agreement, described in an IRS Criminal Investigation announcement of his guilty plea in June, says “Wilson” first contacted the woman in 2023 and described himself as a widowed U.S. citizen living in Norway. He built an online romance, and he repeatedly asked for gift cards, saying he needed them to “stay online.” She sent about 30 gift cards worth $500 each, close to $15,000.
From January to July 2024, according to the sentencing announcement, she mailed eight checks totaling over $162,000. They were made out to various people and entities, and two of them went to Odiboh. Then in December 2024 the story changed. “Wilson” said he was being held by customs authorities in Norway and needed a $158,000 fine paid. She mailed two checks for that amount, but her bank detected the fraud and stopped payment before they cleared.
The thread running through the cases is that every request came from someone the victim knew only online. People in their 70s and 80s who use Facebook or a dating site are the ones this script is written for: someone friendly arrives, a relationship forms over months, and the money requests start small. Gift cards came first in the 77-year-old’s case, then checks, then a “customs fine” that was larger than all the rest. Anyone with a parent or a friend in that spot can ask one plain question: have the two ever met in person?
Phone numbers and addresses that data brokers and people-search sites list are another way strangers find older people, and Incogni sends removal requests to those brokers for you and keeps re-sending them.
Four victims, $356,500
The woman was one of four victims in the case. A caterer was sent a $2,800 check by a person calling himself “Alex Alberto,” who then asked the caterer to wire the extra $2,000 to Odiboh through Zelle. The caterer realized it was a scam and did not deposit the check. Another victim met a man calling himself “William Rivera” on an online dating site and sent $2,000 to Odiboh through CashApp on Aug. 14, 2024. A fourth, who met “Alec Jonas” on a dating site in March 2025, wired $17,525 to a bank account he controlled after being told he was working in Bahrain and needed money to ship goods.
The total loss and attempted loss across the four was $356,500, according to the announcement. The charge was conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries a maximum of 20 years in prison. U.S. District Judge Charles J. Siragusa took the plea, and sentencing was set before him for Oct. 8. Assistant U.S. Attorney Meghan K. McGuire prosecuted the case, and IRS Criminal Investigation and the FBI investigated.
What the FTC says about this script
The Federal Trade Commission’s page on romance scams lists the signs that match this case. The person wants to move the conversation off the app quickly, builds trust fast, and says he lives far away so he cannot meet in person. Then come the urgent needs: medical bills, travel, a visa, or fees to get out of trouble. The “customs fine” in Norway is that last one.
The FTC’s list of how scammers ask to be paid includes wire transfers, gift cards where they ask for the PIN codes, money transfer apps and cryptocurrency. Its main advice is short: “Never send money or gifts to a sweetheart you haven’t met in person.” It also suggests talking to a friend or family member about the relationship, searching online for the person’s job plus the word “scammer,” and running a reverse image search on the profile photo, since a photo tied to another name is a warning sign.
The page does not mention checks. In this case checks were the main vehicle, and the bank’s own fraud detection is what stopped the two checks for $158,000.
If money has already been sent
The FTC says anyone who has paid a scammer should contact the company or the bank right away, say that the payment went to a scammer and ask for the money back, and stop communicating with the person. For a check, speed matters, because a bank can sometimes stop one that has not cleared, as happened with the $158,000 here.
Reports go to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, and the social network or dating app where the person was met should be told as well. The bank that cashed or sent the checks is the other early call, because it can flag the account.
Write down what happened while it is fresh: the name the person used, the app, the dates, every amount, and the names on the checks, since in this case the checks went to various people and entities and not to one account. Those details are what a bank or an investigator needs first. A relative who helps with the paperwork should keep the person’s dignity in mind. The woman in this case was the target of a plan that ran for 18 months and used a claimed widowhood, a foreign country and a government fine to keep her sending money.
Facebook is where the romance began
In the Odiboh case, the 77-year-old was first reached through Facebook and two other victims through dating sites, and the requests kept coming for 18 months. Personal details on broker lists are a separate way in. Incogni sends removal requests to data brokers and people-search sites for its users and keeps sending them after the first round. Thinner broker files can mean fewer scam calls, texts and emails arriving at all.
Send removal requests to data brokers with Incogni →
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
