Three Nigerians arrested in India for cyberfraud

The cybercrime police has arrested three Nigerians, Lezhu John, Gibril Mohammed, and Egboola Ekena in Delhi, for allegedly defrauding an Indian woman of over Rs 2.62 lakh.

According to the India cybercrime police, the suspects were allegedly operating a cybercrime racket that led to numerous individuals across India becoming victims, and have possession of numerous photographs of men and women stored on their mobile phones, which they allegedly used to create fake social media profiles and deceive people.

The ACP (Cybercrime), Vadodara, M.M. Rajput said,m“Investigations revealed that the accused used over 500 bank accounts to commit the fraud. Over 900 complaints have been filed across the country in connection with these bank accounts.”

The most recent victim filed a complaint at the Cybercrime Police Station after realising she had been defrauded by a suspect she had connected with on her Instagram account.

One of the accused had allegedly introduced himself as Sohn Yunmin, claiming to be a chemical engineer from the United States and told the woman he would soon be working in Assam, and through their growing friendship, she eventually sent him a gift.

“In April this year, the accused told the woman that he needed to buy some machinery and his friend, who was supposed to pay for it, didn’t have money in his bank account. He asked her to transfer him Rs 50,000, and she obliged. After some days, the accused told her he was coming to Assam as he got a job offer there and his parcel would soon land in India.

“After some days, she got a call from a woman called Niharika who asked for Rs 35,500 for the parcel that had US dollars. She transferred the amount, but Niharika kept asking for more money by giving various reasons. The complainant ended up transferring Rs 1.69 lakh, but she soon realised that she was being duped,” the report read.

The police stated that the suspects were tracked down using the details of the bank transactions. It remains unclear when the three Nigerians will be charged in court.

If convicted by the court, each of the three suspects, faces a minimum of three years imprisonment under the Information Technology Act (IT Act, 2000) and the Indian Penal Code.