Four Nigerian nationals have been arrested by the Cyber Crime Wing of Greater Chennai Police in Tamil Nadu, India, for allegedly duping businessmen online.
The suspects were said to have cheated many businessmen in the city and elsewhere in the State by promising good returns on their investments.
The police arrested the four suspects, Okories Godswill Sainasa, 32, Uche John Imeka, 47, Godwin Immanuel, 32, and Eposie Uchenna Stanley, 32, who were operating in Kharghar, a suburb of Navi Mumbai, and brought them to Chennai on Thursday, March 23, 2023.
According to the police, the accused Nigerian nationals worked in teams and contacted the businessmen first through LinkedIn.
One of the teams with a fake profile picture of a white woman in the name of Nora Morrison from Canada on WhatsApp status approached the victim, a businessman from Kolathur.
She claimed to be the Chief Executive Officer of a Canada-based pharmaceutical firm and offered good commission for supplying herbal oil. Then the others got in touch with her.
The businessman made online transfers in December 2022 for ₹33 lakh to the account mentioned by fraudsters towards procuring oil from Delhi and supplying it to Canada. He did not receive any commission as promised and he lost his money as the business proponents went incommunicado.
Following a complaint, a special team of police led by Cyber Crime Wing inspector T. Vinodhkumar analysed the call records, mails and other electronic communications and traced down the suspects near Mumbai.
Mr. Vinodh Kumar said, “Our team conducted an investigation for 10 days with help of Navi Mumbai police and searched the house of suspects in Kharghar police station limits and arrested four of them.”
Explaining the modus operandi of the gang, the officer said it had four teams posing as the executives, purchase managers, suppliers and quality control.
In reality, all teams were Nigerian nationals operating from a home in Navi Mumbai. They never made video calls or voice calls to victims in Chennai.
He added that they mainly targeted people in import-export business and who had registered their details on business portals and social media platforms.