Senior citizen duped of Rs 2 crore in Nigerian cyber con, 4 held in Delhi

MUMBAI: The cyber crime cell of Mumbai police has arrested four persons from New Delhi who were reportedly part of a Nigerian con gang that duped a Bandra-based senior citizen to the tune of Rs 1.97 crore.

The cyber police on Friday arrested Mangal Bishnoi, Amit Agarwal, Sameer Merchant alias Karan Sharma, Jitendra Rathod and Paresh Nisband from Delhi. Police booked all of them under IPC sections of cheating, forgery, breach of trust and Information technology act and they are likely to be produced in court on Sunday.

Though the accused have been arrested based on the fact that the victim was asked to transfer the money to their bank accounts, police suspect the gang has duped several senior citizens in Mumbai and Delhi in the past. Police said this case of cyber fraud involved one of the highest amounts in recent years. The four accused transferred all the money to other accounts from where it has already been withdrawn, police said, adding Nigerian scamsters are believed to be the masterminds.

The senior citizen from Bandra, whose name has been withheld, filed a complaint in March this year that he came across a man on Facebook who claimed to be from the

US Army

, posted in Afghanistan. The man offered the victim an opportunity to invest in some deal on a partnership basis. The duo exchanged phone numbers and started chatting on WhatsApp.

The conman sent him a certificate of deposit 'authorised' by the US Army Corp and the same was sent to the Delhi branch of a nationalised bank. The victim then got a call from a woman who identified herself as

Sabina

, claiming to be an executive with that bank, confirming receipt of the certificate. She informed the victim that it had also been mailed to him from the bank's official ID.

However, he didn't realise it was only a fake address. The gang gained the victim's trust after which he deposited a total of Rs 1.97 crore on some or other pretext in various accounts. First he was asked to deposit sost of transfer code, tax for international fund code and for an anti-terrorist code. The accused also send a fake ATM card by post for the complainant to withdraw money. "One day when the complainant tried to withdraw money, he found it was a fake card. He then realised that he had been duped. We believe the masterminds are Nigerian nationals and those we have arrested are mere beneficiaries," said an officer.