Four Nigerians, one Liberian among 7 arrested for fraud

Faridabad, July 25

The police have busted a cheating racket operating through social media platforms and arrested seven persons, including four nationals of Nigeria and one Liberia, residing in Faridabad.

The accused, including a woman, recently got Rs 35,500 transferred in their bank account from an Uttar Pradesh resident citing it to be customs fees for a gift parcel from London.

Two of the accused are residents of the local Chawla Colony, five others arethe nationals of Liberia and Nigeria. The accused have been identified as Promise Ebre, Halimat Mohammed, Okeke Nnabugo, Kenechukwu Okanta (all Nigerians); Williams Michael from Liberia; Anurag and Nishant (both from Chawla Colony).

The racket got exposed after a complaint was lodged here on July 23, by Rajbir Singh, a resident of Aligarh in UP, who told the police that some unknown persons had got Rs 35,500 as customs fees/tax for a gift parcel from London transferred to their the account, which was found functional in a branch of Canara Bank here.

A police team then nabbed the seven accused on Friday evening from the city on the basis of their phone location.

“The passport of Halimat has expired. William and Promise have been found to be in the possession of passports of two different countries,” claimed a police officer.

The accused have been remanded to police custody for further probe. — TNS

Modus operandi

• The woman posing as a foreign national used to develop friendship with victims and offered them gift in the form of jewellery or high-end mobile phone
• Another member posing as a customs official then contacted the victims, asking them to transfer excise fees/tax for dispatching the gift to their address
• Soon after the transfer of money, the gang used to switch off their cellphones