Two youngsters from Uttar Pradesh were arrested by Hyderabad Central Crime Station on charges of providing bank account details to African nationals after cheating gullible people on social media.
Police seized four mobile phones, 16 bank cards and several SIM cards from the possession of the accused, Anil Poniya (23) from Firozabad and Prashanth Kumar (20) of Hathras.
According to Joint Commissioner of Police Avinash Mohanty, the accused came to Delhi and colluded with African nationals to supply bank account details on commission basis. The African nationals created Facebook accounts with fake names and sent friend requests to victims. They would chat with those who accepted their requests and then cheat them on the pretext of sending gift parcel from abroad.
Police said one of the accused had introduced himself as Dr. Ajay Anand from Germany and sent gift parcels to a victim through courier. He then impersonated as a Customs official at Delhi airport and asked the victim to deposit ₹13 lakh as charges, stating that the parcel addressed to her contained money and other valuables, said Mr Mohanty.
The victim, a 37-year-old woman from Chilakalaguda ,told police that she accepted a Facebook request from one Dr. Ajay Anand after which they exchanged their WhatsApp numbers and started chatting.
“After learning about the financial situation of the woman’s family, the accused said he had sent a gift parcel consisting of money, gold and soft toys from Germany, and asked her to pay clearance charges at airport,” Mr. Mohanty said.
A few days later, the victim got a call from a woman who introduced herself as an officer at Immigration Department at Delhi airport and informed her about the parcel from Germany. The victim was asked to pay parcel clearance charges, customs clearance, SBI, GST, charity fund and anti-terrorist certificate to get the parcel. “She thought it was a genuine call and as per their directions, she paid an amount of ₹13 lakhs and got cheated,” the officer said.
