The Cyber police station of the Mumbai Crime Branch has arrested a Nigerian couple and their Indian accomplice for allegedly duping a 57-year-old woman of ₹74 lakh in an online fraud.
According to the police, the victim, a Mahim resident, was contacted on Facebook by the accused in December 2017, who posed as an American man named Donald Tad. ‘Tad’ told the victim he needed to free a parcel from the Customs department and offered her money in exchange for her help in doing so.
“From December 2017 to May 2018, ‘Tad’ convinced the woman to transfer a total of ₹74.20 lakh to various accounts under different pretexts, including ‘processing fees’ for the Customs process and visa expenses for bringing her to the U.S. for a visit, while promising her double the amount she was spending,” an officer said.
Case registered
When ‘Tad’ kept making demand after demand, she finally smelled a rat and approached the Mahim police, after which a complaint of cheating was registered against unknown persons under the Indian Penal Code and sections of the Information Technology Act.
The Cyber police station, while conducting parallel inquiries, obtained details of the IP addresses used by ‘Tad’ and the bank accounts to which the victim had transferred the money.
“We tracked nearly 30 accounts set up in banks in various parts of Navi Mumbai and made inquiries about the account holders. We found out that they were all autorickshaw or taxi drivers who were in touch with a Nigerian couple and had opened accounts at their behest,” the officer said.
By scanning the call detail records of the Nigerian couple, the police zeroed in on Ashok Borade (40), a Navi Mumbai resident. Through him, they picked up Aamra Obesogyu (32) and his wife Christabel Libeh (30), who were allegedly operating the Facebook account. All three were placed under arrest.
“The Nigerian couple was previously arrested by the Pune police for a similar offence,” the officer said.
