Nigerian arrested for duping woman of 57 lakh

Surat: A 28-year-old Nigerian was caught by city’s cyber crime team from New Delhi on Monday for allegedly cheating a 57-year-old woman of Rs 57.39 lakh . Posing as a French national, the accused had duped the victim.
Police arrested Benard Chukwunonso Alexander Onuorah for the fraud. Police are working to recover the money that the accused and his associates had collected from the woman.
The woman, who lives with her father in Maura Gate area, received a WhatsApp message from an unknown foreign number in May 2022. The person introduced himself as Harry, a civil engineer from France. Believing him, the woman started chatting with him.
The person claimed that he is the father of a daughter and his wife had died a few years ago. The accused told the complainant that he wanted to send her a gift and requested her for her address. The woman initially refused the gift but following repeated requests, she shared her address.
After a few days, she received a call from person who introduced himself as an airport official. She was told that a parcel had come from France and she would have to pay Rs 35,000 fee to get it released. The woman asked him what the parcel contained and the person told her that it had jewellery, laptop, watch, purse, sandal and 30,000 pounds.
The woman then called the accused and told him that he should not have sent her precious gifts and she did not need them. The accused then told her that he wanted to propose to her for marriage hence he sent the gifts. The woman refused to marry him and later called the person who had posed as airport official.
She asked him to return the parcel, but the person demanded Rs 50,000 as return charge. On being charged for returning the gifts, the woman changed her mind and decided to accept the parcel. She paid Rs 35,000 through an online wallet to get the parcel released.
Later, she received multiple calls from different persons who demanded money for various charges. She kept on paying the money through an online wallet or direct bank account transfers, believing that she would get precious gifts. She was even charged lakhs of rupees for conversion of 30,000 pounds into Indian rupees.
In August, she received a call from Harry who told her that he had arrived in India to meet her but he had been arrested at Mumbai airport. Later, he sought money to get himself released. Trusting him, the woman sent lakhs of rupees through online transactions.