A Nigerian national identified as Polynes Okeke and a female accomplice, Deepa, have been arrested for customs clearance scam in India.
Police said the suspects allegedly dupe people after befriending them online using fake identities and asking them to pay for customs clearance on the pretext of receiving gifts from abroad.
Okeke, and Deepa, resident of Tilak Nagar in Delhi were arrested by a team of cyber crime police station, Faridabad on Monday, June 6.
The Nigerian lived at rented accommodation in the neighbourhood of the accused woman, police said.
According to the police, the accused duped a Ballabhgarh resident of Rs 85,000. The victim told police that he came in contact with a “girl”, having Jenny Pilip as the user name, on Facebook.
They became friends and started chatting and making calls on WhatsApp. Jenny told her she was from London and wanted to come to India. She said she would first come to Mumbai airport and then take a flight for Delhi.
He got a call from someone impersonating an airport officer who asked him to deposit Rs 20,000 and then demanded another Rs 65,500 as customs duty to get his gifts cleared.
When he deposited the amount, the impersonator asked for more. As suspicion grew, the target approached police after which an FIR was registered.
Police said the fraudsters had created a fake ID of a foreign national and befriended potential targets asked them to pay for customs duty and taxes in order to get clearance for gift items from abroad.
Details of their bank accounts revealed that they had done a transaction of Rs 8 lakh in one month, police said.
The cyber crime police team finally nabbed both the accused, who confessed to their involvements.
“These accused duped many on the same pretext as Rs 8 lakh transaction was made using their bank account in only last one month. We are questioning them and hope many more cases will be solved,” said Nitish Aggarwal, DCP (headquarter), Faridabad.
Police said they recovered two mobile phones, three SIM cards including one from the UK and Rs 21,000 cash from their possession.