HYDERABAD: The cyber crime police of Central Crime Station (CCS), Hyderabad, arrested four persons, two of them Nigerians, in Delhi for posing as bridegrooms in fake profiles posted on matrimonial portals and duping a woman from who they took money on the promise of sending valuable gifts.
The arrested persons were Igbute Kingsley Ucheka (31) and Igbute Jude Nwabulor (27), both residents of New Delhi and Nigerian nationals; their associates Santosh Kumar (28) and Dhirendra Kumar, both also residents of New Delhi. Nine other accused James, Praveen Singh, Mahesh Kumar Tiwari, Nikhil Sharma, Samir Gupta, Sunil Kumar, Sandeep Mishra, Lalitha and Ashok Singh are absconding.
The Nigerians are the key accused in the case. They would register themselves on matrimonial websites as prospective bridegrooms in fictitious names and as high-profile professionals or businessmen abroad. They would target innocent women, particularly widows and single women who are in search of a suitable life partner, and lure them into marriage.
“Once the women fall into their trap, they start squeezing money from the victim, saying that they will send expensive gifts and the recipients have to claim the same through customs. This is a new mode of cheating besides the regular Nigerian brand of lottery, job, insurance and other frauds,” joint police commissioner (crime) T Prabhakar Rao said.
To carry out their plans, the Nigerians lay an extensive trap with the help of their Indian associates, who provide bank accounts in fictitious names for the victims to deposit the money. The bank accounts were opened using fake PAN cards, Voter IDs etc. Mobile phones and SIMs used in the offence were taken by producing fake IDs and were used only for contacting victims.
One Nigerian registered his profile with bharathmatrimony.com in a fictitious name of Chandran David Patel and introduced himself as beverage operations manager (51) of Carnival Cruise Lines and resident of Miami, Florida, US. He also gave fake contact numbers and email ID. He sent messages to many women who registered their profiles on bharathmatrimony.com expressing interest to marry them.
