Some people take to becoming a fugitive like a duck to water. They lie low, go out only in disguise, even create whole new identities. Others, it would appear, do not.

Take the case of Maxi Sopo, a 26-year-old criminal in hiding in Mexico who not only used his Facebook status to tell all and sundry what a good time he was having, but also made the somewhat elementary error of adding a former justice department official to his list of friends.

In status updates from Cancun, where the Cameroon-born fugitive was on the run from charges of bank fraud in Seattle, he said he was "living in paradise" and "loving it".

Michael Scoville, the assistant US attorney who helped find the fugitive, described how Sopo's updates described his lazy days on the beach and wild nights on the town. "He was making posts about how beautiful life is and how he was having a good time with his buddies," Scoville said. "He was definitely not living the way we wanted him to be living, given the charges he was facing."

With spectacular lack of caution, and in capital letters just in case anyone should miss the sentiment, on June 21 he wrote: "LIFE IS VERY SIMPLE REALLY!!!! BUT SOME OF US HUMANS MAKE A MESS OF IT ... REMEMBER AM JUST HERE TO HAVE FUN PARTEEEEEEE."

Sopo, who arrived in the US in about 2003, made a living selling roses in Seattle nightclubs until, according to prosecutors, he moved on to bank fraud. He apparently drove a rented car to Mexico in late February after learning that federal agents were investigating the fraud scheme.

Investigators scoured social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace but initially could find no trace of him and were unable to pin down his location in Mexico.

Several months later, a secret service agent, Seth Reeg, checked Facebook again and up popped MaxiSopo. His photo showed him partying in front of a backdrop featuring logos of BMW and Courvoisier cognac, sporting a black jacket adorned with a not-so-subtle white lion.

Although Sopo's profile was set to private, his list of friends was not. Scoville started combing through it and was surprised to see that one friend listed an affiliation with the justice department. He sent a message requesting a phone call.

"We figured this was a person we could probably trust to keep our inquiry discreet," Scoville said.

Proving the 2.0 adage that a friend on Facebook is rarely a friend indeed, the former official said he had met Sopo in Cancun's nightclubs a few times, but did not really know him and had no idea he was a fugitive. The official learned where Sopo was living and passed that information back to Scoville, who provided it to Mexican authorities. They arrested Sopo last month.

He had been living in an apartment complex, working at a hotel and partying at Cancun's beaches, pools and nightclubs, Scoville said.

Sopo is accused of masterminding a bank fraud scheme with Edward Asatoorians, who was convicted by a federal jury in Seattle last week. The court heard that the pair persuaded young co-conspirators to lie about their income to get loans to buy imaginary cars, and then used the money to prop up Asatoorians's business and to take an expensive trip to Las Vegas.

Asatoorians is expected to be sentenced to at least five years in prison. If convicted, Sopo could face up to 30 years. Whether the US authorities will allow him to update his status should that happen remains to be seen.

• This article was amended on Friday 16 October 2009. "They lay low" has been corrected to "lie low"