A Nigerian, Omeleze
Fred, based in India has been nabbed for a romance scam in which he allegedly
duped unsuspecting female victims.
Fred was nabbed by
the Cyber Crimes Police station, Cyberabad East, for cheating Hyderabadi women
by impersonating as an American national, the Hindu/Deccan Chronicle reports.
The 35-year-old
Delta state-born resides in Mehrauli, New Delhi and preliminary investigation,
according to the police, revealed that he came to India in 2012 and was staying
in different localities in New Delhi.
However, after his
original visit visa expired two months after arriving in India, he prepared a
fake Indian visa sticker and pasted it on his passport and used for renting a
house.
On what led to his
arrest, Inspector Md. Riyazuddin said Fred pretended to be an American soldier
on Facebook and lured victims expressing his love and extorted money in the
name of investments.
Riyazuddin said the
suspect created several Facebook profiles by putting photos of smart looking
Americans and was chatting with Indian women online after searching for their
profiles.
“In the case for
which he was arrested, Fred had trapped the female victim by introducing himself
as one Benson, an American soldier serving in Afghanistan. After several
conversations, he told her that he wanted to come to India and settle with her
by investing his savings, which he told was about five million US dollars.
“The victim later
received a call from a lady who introduced herself as a manager in the customs
department of the airport in New Delhi.
“She was told that
Mr. Benson was apprehended by the customs department for bringing US Dollars
and gold and diamond jewellery.
“At the same time,
Fred, as ‘Benson’ also rang her up and informed her that if she pay the taxes
as told, the customs officer would release his money and jewellery which they
would spend in their future life,” the police Inspector added.
Fred’s victim was
said to have believed him and transferred Rs.2.5 lakh in the bank accounts
provided by him.
“Later she realized
that she was cheated,” the inspector said, adding that the accused was brought
to Hyderabad and was remanded to judicial custody on Wednesday.
“The investigators
found a whopping 5 lakh mobile numbers and one lakh email IDs from his laptop
which was seized,” Inspector Riyazuddin added.
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