Man sentenced to one-year-imprisonment for cybercrime in Abuja

After Christopher Simon admitted to impersonating American actor Channing Tatum and tried to scam two people, he was given a one-year prison sentence.

The offender was displayed after being found guilty by an Abuja High Court, according to a post made on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Wednesday by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

The statement reads, “The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Abuja Zonal Command, on Tuesday, September 19, 2023, secured the conviction one Christopher Simon before Justice N.E. Maha of the Federal High Court Maitama, Abuja on a one-count charge that bordered on fraudulent impersonation.”

The EFCC further stated the charge, “that you Christopher Simon, sometime in 2022 within the jurisdiction of this Court fraudulently impersonated Channing Tatum, a famous American actor, when you created an email account with his name with his name, used his photo as your profile picture and made use of the username ‘Channing Tatum’ while chatting with one ‘Mihaela’ and one ‘Bunnybear’ on the networking platform, Google Hangouts with intent to gain monetary advantage for yourself, and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 22 (3) (a) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc)Act, 2015 and punishable under Section 22 (4) of the same Act”.

He confessed to the crime.

However, after hearing Simon's plea, Maha found him guilty and gave him a one-year prison term with a N200,000 fine.

According to the EFCC statement, the offender must also swear an affidavit of good behaviour and forfeit the proceeds of his crime to the federal government.

Source