Nigerian Man Cheats Gurugram Woman Of Rs 1.73 Lakh On Matrimonial Website

A woman was allegedly duped of Rs 1.73 lakh by a Nigerian man posing as a Turkiye-based high-ranking government officer on a matrimonial website with the help of an accomplice, police said on Friday.

Gurugram Police's cyber crime department arrested the duo from Delhi's Uttam Nagar area on Thursday. Five mobile phones that were used in the fraud have been recovered from their possession, police said.

The accused are identified as Daniel Gozie (38), and Gabriella Sharmila (33), a native of West Bengal's Darjeeling, city police said. Both of them are members of the same gang busted on May 11, police said.

On May 11, city police arrested six people, including four Nigerian nationals, for making fake profiles of wealthy Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) on a matrimonial website as part of a racket to dupe women on the sites.

According the victim's complaint filed on March 31, she connected with a man on a matrimonial website who introduced himself as Shiva Jadhav, a project manager in 'Diamond Construction Limited' in Turkiye.

"The accused talked to me regularly and after some days he told me that he was sending a gift parcel for me, which contained some gold jewellery and other items," she said in the police complaint.

Later, a woman, claiming to be calling from the Mumbai airport, contacted the victim.

"She told me that a parcel has arrived from Shiva Jadhav in my name and to get this parcel I have to deposit Rs 38,500 as tax," she added.

Even after depositing the amount in a bank account shared by the woman, the victim kept getting calls asking for more fees to receive the parcel. A total of Rs 1,73,000 were taken from her, she said.

An FIR was filed at Cyber Crime Police Station, South Gurugram based on the victim's complaint and the accused were nabbed on Thursday.

"During interrogation, the accused revealed that they contact women through social media and matrimonial sites and befriended them after posing as high ranking government officials, businessmen and doctors in foreign countries," Gurgaon ACP (Crime) Varun Dahiya said.

After winning their trust, the victims are told that they will receive a gift parcel at which point another member of the gang, posing as a government tax or customs officer, calls the victim, the ACP said.

"The arrested woman revealed that she had got the money transferred after posing as a customs officer. The accused Nigerian used to provide SIM cards and bank accounts to commit fraud," the officer said.

The duo are currently in police custody and being questioned, he added. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)