Hyderabad police arrest Nigerian in online gift fraud case

Hyderabad, April 4 (IANS) Hyderabad police have arrested a Nigerian national in a case of an online gift fraud in which he, along with four other accused, cheated a person to the tune of Rs 1.22 crore.

The team of Cyber Crimes Police Station nabbed Onuigbo Chibuzo Godwin alias Bobby, 42, in New Delhi.

According to police, he was maintaining fake bank accounts, SMS alert mobile numbers and used to give information to prime accused persons Sequro and Okwuchukwu who are residing in Nigeria regarding fraudulent transactions in those fake accounts.

The accused were cheating innocent people on the pretext of gift fraud. Bobby used to receive 20 per cent on credited amounts towards his share.

Bakayoko Lassina, a national of Ivory Coast (West Africa) and Shoma Purkayastha alias Shoma Prasad Purkayastha of Meghalaya were arrested in February 2023 in the same case. The Nigerian mastermind Bobby has now been arrested. Police seized laptops, mobile phones, SIM cards, bank passbooks and debit cards from his possession.

Police said Sequro and Okwuchukwu based in Nigeria are absconding.

According to police, the accused used to create fake Facebook profiles impersonating US/UK nationals and send friend requests to Indians of the opposite sex. Later after becoming friends, they used to chat over WhatsApp. After a few days of chatting, they would become very close friends. After gaining some confidence they inform the victims that they are going to send costly gifts, jewellery etc and later used to contact the victims with fake mobile numbers posing as if they were from the Customs Department and used to collect money in the name of RBI charges, customs, GST and other charges. They convinced the victims to deposit amounts in given fake bank accounts.