Three Nigerians have been detained in Delhi and face at least three years in prison for allegedly scamming an Indian woman of more than Rs 2.62 lakh.
The Times of India on Saturday reported that cybercrime police arrested Lezhu John, Gibril Mohammed, and Egboola Ekena in connection with an alleged scamming of an Indian woman.
Although the three suspects have not yet been formally charged in court, Chronicle NG found that if convicted, each faces a minimum of three years in prison under the Information Technology Act (IT Act, 2000) and the Indian Penal Code.
According to Section 66D of the Indian IT Act, as cited on the website of India-based law firm S.S. Rana & Co. on Sunday, “Punishment for cheating by personation by using computer resources; whoever, by means of any communication device or computer resource, cheats by personation shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term, which may extend to three years, and shall also be liable to a fine, which may extend to one lakh rupees.”
The suspects allegedly ran a cybercrime ring that victimised several people across India.
According to India’s cybercrime police, the most recent victim filed a complaint at the Cybercrime Police Station after discovering she had been cheated by a suspect she had connected with on Instagram.
The accused allegedly had numerous images of men and women on their mobile phones, which they used to construct phoney social media identities and deceive others.
“Investigations revealed that the accused used over 500 bank accounts to commit the fraud. Over 900 complaints have been filed across the country in connection with these bank accounts,” said the ACP (Cybercrime), Vadodara, M.M. Rajput.
One of the accused allegedly identified himself as Sohn Yunmin and claimed to be a chemical engineer from the United States.
The suspect allegedly told the woman that he would soon be working in Assam, and as their acquaintance developed, she eventually gave him a gift.
The report partly read, “In April this year, the accused told the woman that he needed to buy some machinery and his friend, who was supposed to pay for it, didn’t have money in his bank account. He asked her to transfer him Rs 50,000, and she obliged. After some days, the accused told her he was coming to Assam as he got a job offer there and his parcel would soon land in India.
“After some days, she got a call from a woman called Niharika who asked for Rs 35,500 for the parcel that had US dollars. She transferred the amount, but Niharika kept asking for more money by giving various reasons. The complainant ended up transferring Rs 1.69 lakh, but she soon realised that she was being duped.”
According to the authorities, the offenders were tracked down using bank transaction records. It is unknown when the three Nigerians will be charged in court.
