A 38-year-old Nigerian national, Daniel Gozie, has been arrested in India for allegedly duping a woman by posing as a high-ranking government officer on a matrimonial website, police said at the weekend.
Gurugram Police’s cyber crime department arrested Gozie alongside his female accomplice, Gabriella Sharmila, 33, from Delhi’s Uttam Nagar on Thursday 18, for allegedly duping the Gurugram-based woman of ₹1.73,000, on the pretext of sending her expensive gifts after befriending her on the matrimonial site.
Five mobile phones that were used in the fraud have been recovered from their possession, police said.
Police said Sharmila, a native of West Bengal’s Darjeeling and the Nigerian nationals are members of the same gang busted on May 11.
On May 11, city police arrested six people, including four Nigerian nationals, for making fake profiles of wealthy Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) on a matrimonial website as part of a racket to dupe women on the sites.
According to the victim’s complaint filed on March 31, she connected with a man on a matrimonial website who introduced himself as Shiva Jadhav, a project manager in ‘Diamond Construction Limited’ in Turkiye.
“The accused talked to me regularly and after some days he told me that he was sending a gift parcel for me, which contained some gold jewellery and other items,” she said in the police complaint.
Later, a woman, claiming to be calling from the Mumbai airport, contacted the victim.
“She told me that a parcel has arrived from Shiva Jadhav in my name and to get this parcel I have to deposit ₹ 38,500 as tax,” she added.
Even after depositing the amount in a bank account shared by the woman, the victim kept getting calls asking for more fees to receive the parcel. A total of ₹ 1,73,000 were taken from her, she said.
An FIR was filed at Cyber Crime Police Station, South Gurugram based on the victim’s complaint and the accused were nabbed on Thursday.
“During interrogation, the accused revealed that they contact women through social media and matrimonial sites and befriended them after posing as high ranking government officials, businessmen and doctors in foreign countries,” Gurgaon ACP (Crime) Varun Dahiya said.
After winning their trust, the victims are told that they will receive a gift parcel at which point another member of the gang, posing as a government tax or customs officer, calls the victim, the ACP said.
“The arrested woman revealed that she had got the money transferred after posing as a customs officer. The accused Nigerian used to provide SIM cards and bank accounts to commit fraud,” the officer said.
The duo are currently in police custody and being questioned, he added.
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