NIGERIAN MAN POSES AS A GERMAN WOMAN TO DUPE AN INDIAN

Nigerian man poses as a German woman in order to dupe a retired Indian engineer worth N131 million on social media

A Nigerian man was arrested by the Special Task Force in Uttar Pradesh, India, for allegedly duping a 64-year-old retired Aeronautics engineer out of Rs 9 lakh (N131m) by posing as a German woman on social media.

On Thursday, September 15, 2022, the accused, Jerome Balla aka Sunday Dumka, 34, was apprehended in Delhi. From his possession, police recovered six mobile phones, three SIM cards, one Nigerian voter ID card, a Mastercard, and a photocopy of a passport.

According to the STF, the accused is a member of a gang involved in online fraud, specifically duping older men into friendship by impersonating women. The accused pretended to be a woman on his social media profile and stole money from the victim, a resident of Alambagh in Lucknow, under the guise of sending him gifts for her birthday. The man filed a complaint with the Cyber police.

Vishal Vikram Singh, ASP, STF, stated that the suspect created a fake Facebook profile identifying himself as Analisa Thompson of Berlin and befriended the victim. Last year, the suspect texted the victim, saying that'she' wanted to send her a gift for her birthday and asking for his address.

"A few days later, got a call from a man regarding a parcel and was asked to deposit Rs 20,000 as income tax. I did the payment. A few days later got another call, this time from a woman, and was asked to deposit Rs 52,000 as charges/tax for the gift which was 60,000 in Great Britain currency. Since the money was huge, I did not doubt and deposited this amount also," he said.

He was later told to deposit Rs 3.98 lakh as the final sum, which was calculated as charges for receiving the gift and foreign money. He stated that they took money under the guise of RBI charges/fees. He claimed that the e-mails made him suspicious, so he went to the RBI to inquire about them and was told that he had been duped.