E-Paper
Nigerian man held for duping people through social media sites
In this case, the arrested person is the mastermind of a gang that has been duping people all over the country using the same allure for many years.
In a major breakthrough, cops at the cyber police station arrested a Nigerian National involved in duping people on the pretext of getting them married to foreign women. The arrested person is the mastermind of the gang which has till now duped many people across the country on the same allurement.
The gang has recently duped a man in Prayagraj following which an FIR was lodged at Cyber Police station and investigations were underway by Inspector Rajiv Tiwari and his team.
IG Range Dr Rakesh Kumar Singh said cyber cops traced the mobile numbers used in the crime and took the help of other modern techniques to get the location of the accused. After receiving the pinpoint location, the team members arrested a Nigerian national identified as Aungus Stanley 27 son of Aungus Osuagwu of Owerri in Nigeria. Aungus was illegally living at Neb Sarai in Delhi despite his visa expiring on January 5, 2022.
Three mobile phones used in the crime containing Facebook accounts and chats and messages with fraud victims were seized from Aungus.
Questioning revealed that he used to run a gang of fraudsters involved in duping people by luring them into marriage with foreign women. The gang used to target divorcees, aged and high-profile persons with well-off backgrounds. Social sites were used for searching people of the targeted groups especially those who seem interested in socializing with foreign women and marrying them.
The gang members then created fake accounts of foreign women and used their attractive photographs to lure their targets easily. The targets were sent friend requests on social sites using fake accounts of foreign women. After befriending them, the fraudsters start chatting with them which soon turns romantic and obscene. Fraudsters posing as foreign women then accept a marriage proposal or themselves offer to marry the targeted person. After some time, the fraudsters posing as women inform the victim that they have sent a gift to them. A few days later, other gang members call on the mobile number of the targeted person posing as a customs officer. They asked people to deposit some cash to claim their costly gift sent to them from a foreign country.
Sometimes, the fraudsters also ask people to give cash on the pretext of passports and visas for going to meet the women they were chatting with on social sites. The gang has recently duped cash of ₹20 lakh from different persons on the same pretext. The gang members mostly use mobile numbers from a foreign country for duping people to avoid being traced. The arrested fraudster will now be taken into police remand to learn about other members of the gang, IG Range added.
