Nigerians con city bizman of Rs 33.30 lakh, held in Mumbai

CHENNAI: Four Nigerians, who allegedly cheated a Chennai businessman to a tune of Rs 33.30 lakh, have been arrested by the city Cyber Crime police from Mumbai on Wednesday.

The cops tracked down the suspects – Okorie Godwill Sainasa (32), Uche John Imeka (47), Godwin Immanuel (32) and Eposie Uchenna Stanley (32) – in a rental apartment in Navi Mumbai, and arrested them on charges of impersonation and cheating.

The suspects had posed as executives of a Canada-based pharma firm and duped the victim after connecting via LinkedIn saying that they were looking for Ayurvedic medicine for cancer. They had been targeting people involved in import and export business.

Posing as a CEO and purchase manager of a pharma company in Canada, along with images of 2 foreigners, they had texted the victim on LinkedIn and then on WhatsApp. They asked him to buy Ayurveda oil from a company in Delhi and send it to Canada. They told the victim that the Delhi company did not have an import-export code and that it’d cost Rs 4 lakh per litre if they had to purchase from Canada.

The victim was told he could purchase the oil for Rs 2 lakh per litre and send it to the Canadian company at Rs 3 lakh. They gave contacts of the supposed Ayurveda company in Delhi, which was also managed by the same gang.

Believing them, the victim bought around 18 litres of oil (fake) for Rs 33.3 lakh. Since there was no response from them for 6 months after that, he realised the con, and filed a complaint at the Cyber Crime Wing of the CCB.