(Newser) – You know that Nigerian prince who's always sending you emails promising to trade your bank account information for some sort of mysterious inheritance? Good news! They finally got him. OK, so Michael Neu isn't actually a Nigerian prince, but police say the 67-year-old Louisiana man bilked people out of thousands of dollars using the notorious scam. USA Today reports Neu was arrested Thursday following an 18-month investigation.

Neu is facing 269 counts of wire fraud and money laundering. Police say he acted as the "middle man," getting money from victims and transferring it to accomplices in Nigeria, in hundreds of email and phone scams, the Sacramento Bee reports. "Most people laugh at the thought of falling for such a fraud, but law enforcement officials report annual losses of millions of dollars to these schemes," the Slidell Police Department states. According to WVUE, the investigation into the "Nigerian prince" scam is ongoing, but leads are pointing outside the US, making it difficult. (Read more scam stories.)

