Gifts from abroad: Fraudsters con women, 7 foreigners among 8 held in Noida

NOIDA: Police on Wednesday arrested eight persons, including seven foreigners, for befriending women on social media platforms and cheating them of large amounts of money on the pretext of sending gifts. The gang of six men and two women defrauded 600-700 women across the country of lakhs of rupees, said police.
Noida additional DCP Shakti Avasthy said the case came to light in August 2022 when a woman lodged a complaint at the Sector 20 police station. "She said someone named Morgan befriended her on Instagram and told her he was a Navy officer living in the US. He had a fake display picture. Morgan then said he would send her presents and showed a picture of the parcels. Later, the woman received a call from a person claiming to be an airport customs official and asking her to pay Rs 2.5 lakh as customs duty to get the gift," said Avasthy.
After the complainant transferred the money, Morgan and the customs duty official stopped contacting her, and the woman realised they had cheated her.
Based on her complaint, police filed an FIR under Section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 66 and 66D (cheating using communication device or computer) of the IT Act.
"Our investigation revealed a gang operating in Delhi-NCR cheated the complainant. On Wednesday, we arrested all the gang members from Nihal Vihar, Delhi. They had been living in a rented accommodation. Those arrested include six men and one woman from different countries like Ghana, Nigeria and Ivory Coast and another woman from Sikkim," said Avasthy.
Police identified the accused as Daniel John from Ghana, Calvin Okafor Guise from Nigeria, Uchenna Egbu from Nigeria, Jonas Dekka from Ghana, Hibib Fofana from Ivory Coast, Ixa Sagir from Nigeria, Oyoma Lisa Domenik from Nigeria, and Radhika Chhetri from Gangtok, Sikkim. Chhetri posed as the customs official as she could speak in Hindi and helped the gang dupe several people, said police.
Officials also seized 31 mobile phones from the gang and learnt they duped 600-700 women with the same modus operandi.
"The gang would take at least Rs 1 lakh from each woman. Only two foreigners have a legal visa while the other visas have expired," said Rajneesh Verma, AC, Noida.
Police produced the suspects before a magistrate on Wednesday and sent them to judicial custody.