Six persons, including five Nigerian nationals, have been arrested for allegedly duping people of lakhs of rupees by befriending them on social media and asking them to pay custom duty to receive expensive gifts.
DCP (South) Chandan Choudhary on Friday said the racket came to light following a complaint earlier this month by a 62-year-old professor.
The complainant had received a friend request on Facebook from a woman claiming to be from the United Kingdom. She soon shared an overseas mobile number with him and they began talking on WhatsApp.
“She said she’ll gift him expensive mobiles and gold-plated wristwatches. In order to make the complainant believe her, she sent videos of the products being packed and receipts of parcel delivery,” Ms. Choudhary said.
A few days later, the professor received a call from a person claiming to be from the Excise Department, who claimed that custom duty needs to be paid for the release of the parcel. He ended up paying this person ₹27 lakh, the DCP added.
Once the complaint realised he had been cheated, he lodged a complaint.
Following an investigation and technical analysis of the overseas mobile number, the police arrested four of the accused, who were Nigerians. Based on their inputs, Nigerian national John Chuhukwuma Onyema and his Indian wife Nirupama, were also arrested.
“The couple revealed that they used to hire a woman to talk to the victims on social media and used to further pose as Excise Department officials and threaten victims into paying duty charges into their shared bank accounts to release the gifts,” the DCP added.
