NFLPA alerts agents that players may have been victimized by fraudulent scheme
The NFL Players Association has sent to all certified agents notice of a fraud and sex trafficking scheme that targeted NFL and NBA players. Per the notice sent via email on Thursday, "The FBI has advised that Kwamaine Jerell Ford, posing as a female adult film star, lured athletes into providing sensitive information. This individual was supposedly able to access many athletes’ iCloud accounts and stole victim information including credit cards.
Additionally, this individual posing as an adult film star, lured athletes into having sex with an adult female OnlyFans creator, being filmed without their knowledge or consent. " Ford was indicted last week on nine counts of wire fraud, seven counts of computer fraud, one count of access device fraud, four counts of aggravated identity theft, and one count of sex trafficking. Ford allegedly commenced the scam "[w]hile serving time for stealing credit card numbers from athletes and celebrities.
" From the Department of Justice press release : "[B]eginning in at least November 2020, while in the Federal Bureau of Prisons' custody, Ford allegedly obtained login credentials for Apple accounts belonging to NBA and NFL players through a two-pronged approach. First, Ford allegedly posed online as a well-known adult film star and offered to send sexually explicit videos to the athletes. At the same time, Ford spoofed legitimate Apple customer service accounts, posed as an Apple customer support representative, and requested, via text messages, that the victims send their username, password, and/or Multi-Factor Authentication codes in order to access the videos that his fraudulent adult film star persona was purportedly trying to send the victims.
Through this phishing scheme, dozens of victims were allegedly tricked into providing their login credentials to Ford. After gaining control of the victims’ Apple accounts, Ford allegedly obtained credit and debit card information belonging to victims and used that information to pay for thousands of dollars in personal spending. "Additionally, in May 2021, Ford allegedly posed as the adult film star and recruited, tricked, and coerced a female victim into engaging in commercial sex acts with the professional athletes based on false promises that the film star would advance the victim’s modeling career.
Ford advertised the victim to the athletes, coordinated the victim’s travel to the athletes, and negotiated payments from the athletes for the purpose of purchasing sex with the victim. Ford used additional fraudulent personas to threaten the victim and maintain her continued involvement in commercial sex acts with the athletes. Using false personas, Ford obtained a financial cut from the commercial sex acts, many of which Ford allegedly coerced his victim into filming without the athletes’ knowledge or consent.