A 35-year-old Nigerian national has been arrested for allegedly cheating a man of ₹5.9 lakh, posing as a woman on social media, the police said on Thursday.
The accused has been identified as Ogbodo Ifeanyi Henrey, who was residing in Devli Khanpur here, they said.
ACP (Crime) A.K. Singla said one Sanjay Banerjee, resident of Patparganj, filed a complaint based on which investigation was started.
Mr. Banerjee came in contact with a lady named Holly David on Facebook in January 2017, according to the police complaint .
The woman claimed to be a UK resident and told Mr. Banerjee that she would come to India on February 6, 2017 on a British Airways flight. “On February 6, 2017, Mr. Banerjee received a call wherein the caller claimed to be a customs officer from Mumbai and told him that “Holly David” was at the Mumbai Airport and she had to pay ₹55,000 as customs clearance to travel in India, Mr. Singla said.
Similarly, Mr. Banerjee was asked to pay more money at a regular intervals. In total, Mr. Banerjee transferred ₹5.90 lakh from his bank account to the account of the alleged persons in three installments in the name of customs clearance and anti-terrorist certificate, he said. When the accused persons demanded more money, Mr. Banerjee sensed that he was being duped and refused to pay.
During investigation, a team headed by Inspector Sandeep Malhotra found the accused persons were changing their mobile numbers frequently, the officer said.
After working for almost six months on the case, Henrey was nabbed from his house at Jawahar Park, Devli Khanpur, Delhi.
During probe, it was revealed that he has cheated many other through Facebook in connivance with one Viveinlly with whom he was living, he said. He had created many identities with fake names of females and started sending friend requests to random male persons, Mr. Singla said. The bank account allegedly used by Henrey was found to be opened on forged documents, the police said.
