Watch: ‘I Helped My Flatmate—Then Discovered He Was Scamming a Maltese Woman as a Fake US Soldier’
An Indian national has spoken out about how his attempt to help his flatmate out saw him dragged into a complex romance fraud scheme that resulted in a Maltese woman getting scammed out of thousands of euro.
In an interview with Lovin Malta, Ayub Khan opened up about his ordeal in the past few years which has left him in an extremely dire position, unable to find a job or return to his home country.
He said it all started in January 2019 when his flatmate Godwin, a Nigerian national, asked him for his Revolut bank details so that he could transfer money to buy food and pay his rent.
He said Godwin told him that his own Nigerian ATM card had expired but that his sister, who lived in Canada, was ready to transfer money to him.
He allegedly told Ayub that his father was rich but that they had fought over the phone and refused to continue helping him out financially. However, he would continue helping his sister.
“I refused for three or four days, but he kept asking me, and when I saw that he wasn’t eating and that he was drinking tap water, I agreed to help him out,” Ayub said.
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He said he gave Godwin his account details and received around $2,800 (€2,400) from a person with the surname Attard.
Again, Ayub said that he wasn’t suspicious at the time, that he wasn’t aware Attard was a Maltese surname, and that he didn’t ask him about it.
The same day, Godwin accompanied Ayub to the ATM at the University of Malta to give him the funds, which had to be done in several separate withdrawals.
He said that he had around €140 left in his account when he exceeded his withdrawal limit. As he had to rush to work, he decided to leave his card with Godwin, who had told him he needed to buy food.
Revolut statements indicate that Godwin didn’t actually spend this money before he handed Ayub’s card back to him two days later, and this would eventually become a crucial part of the police’s evidence against him.
Two years passed, by which time Ayub had moved to a new apartment and lost contact with Godwin.
However, in April 2021, Ayub received a phone call that would dramatically change his life.
Asked why he didn’t tell Godwin to make use of an international money transfer instrument like Western Union, Ayub said that it didn’t cross his mind at the time.
“It was from the police, and they told me I was under arrest for money laundering and fraud,” he recounted.
“I was very surprised and told them that I didn’t do anything but they told me to come to the financial crimes department so they would explain.”
There, police informed him that the €2,400 were proceeds of fraud and charged him with a range of crimes, including money laundering.
Ayub said he spent two weeks in prison, but it was only when the case went to court that he discovered the full extent of what he had got involved into.
In court, police revealed that a Maltese woman (surname Attard) had in 2018 received a Facebook friend request by a certain “Victor Scarlett”, who claimed to be a US soldier stationed in Syria.
They started chatting by means of messages and several hours of WhatsApp calls and a relationship developed. Eventually, “Victor Scarlett” asked her to email his commander “Jack Wilson” on a Gmail account to request that he be granted leave from his post to come to Malta.
She did so, and “Commander Wilson” informed her that she would need to pay for “Victor Scarlett”’s travel clearance and expenses and clear around €20,000 in taxes.
He initially instructed her to pay $2,850 to an HSBC Malta Bank account, which he claimed belonged to a UN representative. When she transferred the money, “Commander Wilson” instructed her to withdraw it and transfer it to a Revolut account, which turned out to belong to Khan.
This wasn’t the only payment she made. In fact, she forked out a total of €27,000 – €2,450 to Khan and the rest to bank accounts belonging to two other people whose names weren’t published in the court judgement.
When her bank refused to allow further transfers of funds from her account, she gave money in cash to two friends, who agreed to transfer the funds from their personal accounts.
Eventually, when “Commander Wilson” asked her to send more money and she refused because she had exhausted all her funds, he informed her that they would be unable to send “Victor Scarlett” to Malta.
Although the police never suggested that Ayub was pretending to be “Victor Scarlett” or “Commander Wilson”, they believed that he was complicit in the scheme and that he was promised a percentage of the funds as compensation.
The police zeroed in on a number of circumstances. First of all, although Godwin told Ayub that he was going to spend the remaining €140 on food, Ayub’s Revolut statements indicate that this money remained in his account.
Ayub told Lovin Malta that while Godwin did indeed buy food that day, he doesn’t know why the transactions didn’t appear on his Revolut account and conceded it is possible Godwin used other money.
In court, he explained that the balance might have been set off against money previously owed to him by Godwin, a version of events the prosecution found contradictory to his own explanation that he didn’t always expect his flatmate to repay the amounts lent to him.
Ayub’s account was also credited with €144 the next day, which he said was possibly a payment for extra work or the repayment of funds he had lent to friends.
He denies that this was some kind of compensation and is arguing that he would have changed his phone number if he had actually been involved in the scam.
The prosecution also found Ayub’s explanation that Godwin was going to receive a substantial sum of money from his sister when he had several financial problems implausible.
They also argued that Ayub was aware that the funds were transferred to his account by Ms Attard, and not Godwin’s sister.
Magistrate Rachel Montebello agreed with the prosecution, adding that Ayub should have asked Godwin for details, including why the transfer couldn’t have been effected via Western Union.
She said Ayub’s suspicion should have been “unconditionally confirmed” when Godwin pleaded with him to withdraw all the money that same day, even though the rent was a mere €350 a month, and when he demanded to accompany him to the ATM.
She found him guilty of money laundering, sentencing him to 18 months imprisonment, suspended for three years, and ordering him to repay Attard the €2,400.
Ayub is appealing this judgement but is living in a state of limbo, as his passport and ID card remain confiscated.
He is therefore unable to return to India to meet his mother and is struggling to find a job, because whenever he is asked for his ID card, he has to inform them about the case.
“When they find out about my case, they just tell me that they’ll let me know and then tell me that they can’t move forward with my job application and wish me better luck next time.”
He is urging Godwin – who he believes is still living in Malta – to come forward to the police.
“I can’t continue living like this,” he pleaded.
Ayub also urged people not to share their personal bank account details with anyone.
“I learned a lesson. If you want to help, then help in a way that you don’t get too involved. Never share your personal information or bank account because if something happens, then you will end up in a bad situation.”
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