Social media influencer ‘fesses up to lonely hearts scam

Metro

By Dean Balsamini

A prominent social media influencer from The Bronx has pleaded guilty to her role in laundering the proceeds of a long running multimillion dollar catfishing scam, authorities said.

Mona Faiz Montrage, who boasted 3.4 million Instagram followers before she removed her profile from the platform, was living in the Boogie Down from 2013 to 2019 while assisting a West Africa-based group of con artists who relied on emails, texts and social media messages to reel in their romantic rubes, prosecutors said.

Many of those taken in were vulnerable, older men and women who lived alone, authorities said. The con artists used fake identities to convince the lonely hearts across America to send them cash.

Montrage pleaded guilty in Manhattan Federal Court Feb. 21 to conspiracy to receive stolen money, federal authorities said.

“In total, Montrage controlled bank accounts that received over $2 million in fraudulent funds from the enterprise, the feds said.

Montrage and other scammers convinced their lovelorn marks to help move gold to the US from overseas; to help resolve purported FBI investigations; and send cash to help US Army officers in Afghanistan, according to court papers.

Her ill-gotten gains were deposited in Montrage’s Bronx bank accounts before she wired much of the money to her native Ghana, authorities said.

She allegedly charmed one pigeon into sending her $89,000 through 82 wire transfers by claiming her father’s farm in Ghana needed help, the court documents said.

She tricked that person into believing the pair were married by sending them a tribal marriage certificate after a series of phone conversations using her real identity, authorities alleged.

Montrage now faces up to five years in prison at her May 21 sentencing. She also must make $2.1 million restitution, according to the plea deal.

The social media influencer — whose Instagram account was among the top 10 most followed in Ghana –was arrested on Nov. 10, 2022, in the UK for conspiracy, and brought to the US in May.

On her page, she shared posts about her music, travels to London and luxury goods.

“Romance scams such as Montrage’s harmed her vulnerable, elderly victims not only in the cruel betrayal of trust in the realization that their online romantic connection was fiction, but by also callously stealing their money,” said Manhattan US attorney Damian Williams.

Montrage is currently out on $500,000 bail and staying with a relative in Union, NJ, according to court papers. She must wear a GPS tracker and is allowed limited travel in parts of New York and New Jersey, according to the Manhattan US Attorney’s Office.