Md. man held in Montco in scheme to bilk retiree

A Maryland man accused of participating in an elaborate scheme to bilk a 64-year-old Hatfield retiree out of more than $75,000 now faces theft charges, Montgomery County authorities said Monday.

Maxwell Gbogboade allegedly worked as part of a network of people posing on an online dating site as a woman named Mary Douglas.

The fake woman claimed to be a Nigerian actress coming to the United States to film a movie and, after professing her love for her victim, asked him to send her money to finance her expenses. She told her mark she would move to Hatfield after production wrapped on the film, prosecutors said. Detectives traced the e-mails to an IP address in Nigeria and intercepted Gbogboade at a scheduled meeting at the Philadelphia International Airport Marriott, where the victim was to hand over $46,000 in cash.

He was arraigned Friday on theft-by-deception charges and remained in the Montgomery County Correctional Facility on a $750,000 bond, pending a preliminary hearing set for Thursday. - Jeremy Roebuck