NIGERIA, GHANA RESIDENTS HELD AS COPS SAY INT’L COVID CHEATING RACKET BUSTED

NEW DELHI: With the arrest of residents of Nigeria and Ghana, the Delhi police’s crime branch on Sunday claimed to have busted an international racket involved in cheating people on the pretext of selling them Covid-19 related medicines and oxygen cylinders online.

Police said at least 1,000 people have been targeted by the gang who were duped of a total sum of nearly ₹2 crore.

ACP (crime) Shibesh Singh said a person registered a case on May 5, alleging that he was duped of Rs 20,000 by a person online who offered to sell him an oxygen cylinder

“We found similar complaints were registered in different police stations and that the same phone number was used by the accused while duping people,” Singh said.

The police found that the suspects have used more than 200 SIM cards and multiple mobile phone instruments to send messages to the people offering to sell oxygen cylinders and other Covid-related medical help. With the help of technical analysis of data collected from various service providers, it was found that foreign nationals are involved in this racket which operates across many states in India, the officer said.

“Following our probe, we zeroed in on one Nigerian Chika living in Khirki Extension and arrested him on Thursday. Based on information provided by him, we arrested his associate, Jonathan Kojo, a Ghana citizen from the same area. As many as 163 SIM cards, 19 mobile phones, five laptops, some debit cards and other articles were recovered from them,” Singh said.

“They flashed their mobile numbers on different social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Whatsapps etc. promising oxygen cylinders. After trapping victims, they used an online wallet account to receive payments. The money was also deposited in the bank accounts of their associates in Africa who assisted them in this fraud,” he said.