Accomplice of foreign national apprehended for defrauding women nabbed

The cyber cell of Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (UPSTF) on Wednesday arrested an Indian accomplice of a foreign national who was apprehended last month for defrauding women on social media

The cyber cell of Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (UPSTF) on Wednesday arrested an Indian accomplice of a foreign national who was apprehended last month for defrauding women on social media.

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Ndafirmi (26), an Ivory Coast national living in Delhi, was nabbed on May 9 by the UPSTF cyber cell for cheating a woman on social media. The woman filed a complaint at the Sector 6 Cyber Crime police station on June 21, 2021, alleging that Ndafirmi duped her of ₹2,81,3900 after befriending her on Instagram.

Dheeraj Rathod (21), Haryana resident, was arrested from his Faridabad home for being Ndafirmi’s accomplice in the crime. Dheeraj provided him with his bank account details to receive the money cheated from the woman.

“Dheeraj got a commission of ₹20,000 for each time his bank account was used for money transactions between the foreign national and the women he was duping. Since 2020, the bank account has been used several times for such transactions,” said Rita Yadav, in-charge, Cyber Crime police station, Gautam Budh Nagar.

He has been booked under sections 120 B (party to a criminal conspiracy), 389 (extortion), 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) of the Indian Penal code, and as sections of 66,66D (cheating using communication device or computer) of the Information Technology Act.

According to police, Dheeraj and the foreign national were running an organized gang of cybercriminals, who targeted Indian women by sending them friend requests on social media.

“Their modus operandi was to ask these women to pay some money to release some expensive gifts from customs officials. If they refused to do so, the perpetrators threatened to entrap them in a money-laundering case. So far, the gang has duped 15 women and cheated them of ₹1.60 crores,” Yadav informed.