LUCKNOW: A Nigerian guy, posing as a woman on social media, is accused of defrauding a 64-year-old man in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, of more than Rs 7 lakh by promising to send return gifts on "her" birthday.
The man, an Alambagh resident, has lodged a case with the cyber police.
The Nigerian guy was detained by the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force for allegedly extorting money from people by setting up false social media profiles and defrauding them of millions of rupees.
The accused has been identified as Jerome Balla Aka and was arrested on Thursday from Delhi. Six mobile phones, three SIM cards, one Nigerian voter ID card, a Mastercard, and a passport photocopy were seized by police from his hands.
The suspect admitted during questioning that he is a resident of Gini, Nigeria, and that he visited India in 2017. He later wed an Indian woman in 2018 and has been residing in Delhi ever then. The accused also created multiple IDs on different social media sites, which he then used to display images of foreigners in order to lure the victims.
In order to become friends with the victims, the accused pretended to be a man or woman from America, Germany, or another country. He even used voice-changing software to speak to them on the phone. The accused even promised to marry the victims and bring them expensive gifts.
Later, he would contact them under the guise of a customs officer and threaten to demand payment of "customs duty" on the goods they had received.
The accused also conned individuals by threatening to implicate them in a money laundering investigation and soliciting payments to be sent to numerous bank accounts, the police informed.
Sexual abuse case in UP: Teacher gets 20 years sentence in jail
Minor girl sold as child bride rescued from Jaipur