Two men from Ghana, Nigeria held for cheating Hyderabad woman

Hyderabad, Oct 15 (IANS) Hyderabad police have arrested two foreigners for cheating a city-based woman after developing friendship over Instagram.

The Cyber Crime Police arrested Allote Peter alias Chibuza of Ghana and Romance Joshua of Nigeria from Delhi.

According to police, the arrested were made after a woman from Begumpet area lodged a complaint that she was cheated to the tune of Rs 2.2 lakh.

The victim told police that a person developed online friendship. He introduced himself as Oscar Leone, a doctor from the US. They latter chatted on WhatsApp and he informed her that he was sending a parcel which has gold jewellery, electronic gadgets, and some cash.

Later, the woman received a call from another man, who introducing himself as an official from Customs Department of Delhi International Airport. He asked her to pay the customs duty for the gifts she received from Leone. Police said the accused collected Rs 2.2 lakh from the victim citing various charges.

During the course of the investigation, the Cyber Crime police found the accused to be in Delhi and arrested them. On interrogation they revealed that they visited Delhi on student visa, created fake profiles over Instagram and Facebook using the photos of white people, and sent follow/friend requests to women. Later they chatted with mobile numbers starting with in +1 and +44 numbers and made the victims believe that they are chatting with foreigners.

After developing friendship with the victims and after gaining their confidence, they inform the victims that they are sending a gift as a token of their friendship. To make the victims believe their word, the accused were sending photos of gold jewellery, cellphones, laptops, cash, etc. Later their associates called up the victims and introduce themselves as officials from customs department of Delhi international airport, and collected money from the victims in the name of customs duty, income tax, RBI charges, conversion charges, etc.

Police have advised people to take care in accepting friend/follow requests from unknown people over Facebook and Instagram. People have also been advised not to entertain telephone calls from those impersonating Customs Department officials.