Five Africans nabbed by Rachakonda police for cyber fraud

After befriending victims on social media platforms including Facebook, they would move into chatting via WhatsApp and other apps, and using different stories, including sending costly gifts, siphon off huge amounts from the victims.

Hyderabad: Five African nationals were arrested from Delhi by the Rachakonda Cybercrime Police on charges of cheating a person from Hyderabad of Rs 4.8 lakh after tricking him into a fake online relationship. The gang, police said, had used the Dingtone app to display a different country code to cheat people.

The gang members, who were into cheating people in the guise of sending valuable gifts soon after developing friendship through Facebook, were identified as Akpalu Godstime, Adjel Gift Osas, P Ehigiator Daniel, Nkeki Confidence David, and P Kromah Oyibo N, all aged in the late twenties and most of them originally from Nigeria though with passports of different African countries.

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According to the police, in November 2020, the victim met an unknown female, ‘Sophia Alex’, on Facebook and soon, the two started chatting on WhatsApp and voice calls. ‘Sophia Alex’, a fake name created and used by Godstime, told the victim that ‘she’ was from Australia and lived in London.

“’She’ told him ‘she’ was coming to Hyderabad in a few days, all of sudden called him and said ‘she’ was in Mumbai. The victim received a call from another unidentified woman who claimed to be a customs officer and asked to pay Rs 4.8 lakh for valuables and other luggage of Alex if they had to be released,” Rachakonda Police Commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat said, adding that the victim got suspicious after sending the money. He then approached the Cybercrime police who traced the gang and sent a special team to raid their hideout in New Delhi.

Police said Godstime, the prime suspect and kingpin controlled the members and as per his plan, assigned roles to them. It was found that three similar cases were booked against them in Hyderabad.

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