NEW DELHI: More than 500 people were duped by a notorious gang of international fraudsters on the pretext of sending them expensive offshore gifts or money, the police said.
According to the police, five accused persons, including three foreign nationals, who were running the said syndicate were arrested. They were identified as Isaac Chukwuma Okorie, Ofosu, Sai Matthew (all three African nationals) and Kamal Kumar and Lalrimawii.
A senior Delhi Police official said the complaint was lodged by a woman doctor stating that one Mark Peterson had approached her on Instagram in June and he represented himself as an American Airlines pilot, presently residing in London. They became friends in July and he told her that he is coming to India for a tour.
After a few days, the complainant received a call that Peterson had arrived at the Mumbai airport and in the name of customs duty and other charges, the accused duped her of more than Rs 19 lakh. Based on her complaint, the police registered a case under relevant sections and began the probe by first obtaining bank details of beneficiary accounts in which the complainant had transferred the money.
“It revealed that a large number of transactions were being done in the said bank accounts. Further, it was revealed that the money credited in these accounts was transferred to other bank accounts or withdrawn through ATMs immediately,” DCP (central) Shweta Chauhan said.
The accused had opened various accounts under the name of different people to circulate the money and during further investigation, the police found that the accused had cheated a large number of people with the same modus operandi. One of the suspects was traced and apprehended by the police from the Tilak Nagar area.
At his instance, accused Chukwuma Okorie, Ofosu, Matthew and Lalrimawii were also apprehended. During interrogation, the accused disclosed that they used to befriend people through different social media platforms and later duped them of paying duty charges.