Four including two Nigerians held for duping people

Four men including two Nigerian nationals were arrested for allegedly duping money from people on the pretext of sending them gifts and later calling them for money to get their gifts released by posing as excise officials, police said on Tuesday.

Four men including two Nigerian nationals were arrested for allegedly duping money from people on the pretext of sending them gifts and later calling them for money to get their gifts released by posing as excise officials, police said on Tuesday. The accused have been identified as Sachin Rai (36), Zigmi Lama (29) and two Nigerians Smith Henry (36) and Wisdom Okafor (35), police said. Police said that the accused created fake profiles on Facebook and approached people for friendship through social media platforms. After that they start chatting with them through International WhatsApp numbers. According to police, once they gain confidence of the victims, they offer partnership in their business and in the meantime, they offer them parcel of valuable items as gifts. Later, they approach the victim saying they are excise department officials calling from the Airport Authority. Then they demand money to get their parcel released, and immediately withdraw money from the ATM machines after receiving the money in their accounts from the victims. A detailed probe was initiated after a 62-year-old woman registered a complaint and was duped of Rs 27 lakh using the same modus operandi, police said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Chandan Chowdhary said that during investigation, it emerged that the cheated money was transferred to various bank accounts in different cities.

The team started collecting details of the accused person from Facebook and WhatsApp. The details of bank accounts in which the money was deposited was concisely analyzed. With the help of technical surveillance and manual information, location of suspect Rai was zeroed down and he was apprehended, the officer said. During interrogation, Rai disclosed that he used to sell activated current bank accounts to Nigerian nationals and that he along with his friends were going to give one more bank account at GTB Enclave area. With the help of technical surveillance and human intelligence, location of the accused was zeroed down and the three accused persons including Nigerian nationals were apprehended, she said. ''Through analysis of the recovered digital devices and instruments, it was found that the accused persons had opened a lot of bank accounts in many banks and the bank accounts were supplied to the Nigerian nationals which was used to cheat people,'' she added. Upon their instance, a laptop charger, eight mobile phones, six keypad mobile phones, SIM cards, cheque books, ATM cards and passbooks were recovered, police said, adding further investigation is underway.