Delhi: Two held for duping Facebook users of over Rs 1 lakh
A Nigerian national and his Assamese wife were arrested in New Delhi’s Chanakyapuri on Monday, September 17, for allegedly duping Facebook users to the tune of over Rs 1.21 lakh. Ifeanyi Joachin Nwafor was held for befriending people on the social network and seeking money to buy gifts for poor people in India. His wife, meanwhile, was posing as a customs official and made up random tax figures for clearance to transfer the money to bank accounts held by the duo.
A victim of the scam had lodged a complaint with the police saying she had made two transfers to the accused, a UK-based George Moor, and was being harassed for more money. She said she had deposited Rs 26,000 and later another Rs 95,600 with him. “The woman did not want to disappoint Moor so she sent the money. However, the caller kept demanding more and this time she did not contact him but came to the police,” a senior police officer said.
Another police official said the accused had several Facebook accounts with hundreds of friends. “He used to speak (to users) for days, befriend them, and later claim to send gifts to India. His wife posed as a customs official and made up random tax figures for clearance to transfer the money to bank accounts held by them,” the official added.
During the investigation, the police found that the accused had made a trip to Assam in December 2017. “The passenger lists of all Delhi-bound flights from Dimapur were analysed for clues,” an official said.
The police were able to identify the accused using CCTV footage at ATMs, after tracing money transactions to a bank account at Allahabad Bank. The money was being withdrawn within hours of receiving it.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Dwarka) Anto Alphonse said, “Nwafor is a football player from Nigeria who came to Indian on a business visa in 2009. He lived in Chennai for a year and Kerala for four years before he met an Assamese woman on Facebook. He eventually married her.”