Foreign national held for duping woman of ₹28L
NOIDA: An Ivory Coast national residing in Delhi was arrested by the cyber cell of Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (UPSTF) on Monday for cheating a Noida woman of ₹28.13 lakh on social media, officials said on Tuesday.
Police revealed that the suspect, along with his accomplices who are absconding and are yet to be identified, belong to a gang that defrauded over 15 women to the tune of ₹1.60 crore. The gang has been active since 2020 and the victims are from all over India, police added.
Police identified the suspect as Ndafirmi,(26), a native of Didievi town in Ivory Coast and a resident of Mahavir Enclave in New Delhi. Police added that he was staying at a rented accommodation before his arrest.
On June 21, 2021, a complaint was registered at the cyber crime police station in Sector 6, Noida. The victim woman, who is an IT professional, said that a man who befriended her on Instagram had duped her of ₹28.13 lakh.
“The complainant said that a man named Frank Gramer approached her on Instagram and befriended her, telling her that he lives in the US. The woman also shared her personal details with the man,” said Rita Yadav, in-charge of Cyber Crime police station, Gautam Budh Nagar.
After a couple of weeks, the man said that he is sending her some presents but the woman will have to pay a certain fee to customs officials to release the gifts. When the woman refused to do so, the suspect threatened her that if she does not pay, he will accuse her of money laundering and terrorist activities, police added.
“Scared by the allegations, the woman transferred the amount online to a bank account that was shared to her by the suspect. Upon investigation and technical surveillance, it was found that the man’s
online profile was fake,” added Yadav. An FIR was registered under Section 406 (criminal breach of trust), 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) as well as Sections 66,66D (cheating using communication device or computer) of the IT Act.
On May 9 (Monday), Ndafirmi was arrested by cyber crime sleuths from his residence in Delhi. Upon interrogation, he revealed that he has been working with a gang that cheats women by befriending them on social media sites.
“The accused said that he has studied till class 12 and came to India on a tourist visa in 2019. Here, he started a business of trading in human hair, African food and readymade garments, but during the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, his business ventures failed”, Yadav said.
“As he did not have any source of income, he came in contact with a man named M Vanifo. After this, the accused got involved in the gang and duped gullible women on social media,” Yadav said.
“Their modus operandi was to ask their victims to pay some amount of money to release expensive gifts from customs officials. Our investigations show that the gang duped 15 women to the tune of ₹1.60 crore,” Yadav added.