Creativity in Criminality: Two Nigerians Dupe Indian Woman,Get Arrested

Two Nigerian men who duped the secretary of a
serving Bombay High Court judge of Rs 2.2 lakh
by befriending her on Facebook and eventually
threatening her with ‘a judicial enquiry’, after she
refused to make more payment were arrested by
the cyber police station from New Delhi, India on
Friday, April 22.
The Nigerian men identified as Casmir Chijioke
and
Olivier Onyeka befriended the woman with
one of them pretending to be a UK national.
According to the BKC cyber police, the
complainant, who approached them on April 6,
told them that a few months ago, she received a
friend request on Facebook from a British
national. She accepted the request and the two
started chatting online, said an officer.
The man claimed to be from a well-to-do family
and the duo started chatting frequently. Over a
period of time, they became good friends and
would chat almost daily, an officer said. One day,
the man claimed to have been admitted to a
hospital due to an ailment. The victim was very
upset over this and communicated this to him.
He then told her he was sending her a gift from
the UK, as he himself could not come to India
due to the ailment, an officer said.
A few days after this conversation, the woman
received a call from the ‘Delhi customs’, stating
there was a gift being parceled to her place and
she would need to pay some ‘handling fee’. An
officer disclosed that she paid the amount but
over the next few weeks, she kept receiving
demands for more money under various pretexts
to ‘facilitate the transportation of the gift’. She
then became suspicious and refused to pay the
‘customs official’ anymore.
“At this point, the callers, who knew she worked
as a secretary to a judge, threatened her that if
she did not make the payment, they would
approach the judiciary and a ‘judicial enquiry’
would be initiated against her,” the officer said.
She quickly made another payment out of fear
before approaching the cyber police station on
April 6,’ A team led by inspector Ravi Sardesai
began probe in the matter and based on
technical intelligence, found that the “British”
national was actually chatting from New Delhi. A
team from the BKC cyber police station camped
in Delhi for a few days before they managed to
arrest Casmir Chitioke and Oliver Onyeka.
DCP (cyber) C S Rajkumar said,
“The duo was produced before a court in Delhi
and granted a transit remand to be brought to
the city.” An officer said that there is a
possibility the two suspects have cheated more
people using the same modus operandi. “Once
we check the laptop of the accused, we will be
able to find out if they targeted more victims,”
he said.