Nigerian nationals arrested in Visakhapatnam for Rs 39 crore online scam

The Cyber Crime police of Visakhapatnam arrested four Nigerian nationals for conducting an online scam worth Rs. 39 crore. As per the information from the police officials, the accused used bulk SMS and fake emails under the name of Reserve Bank of India and cheated people in the name collecting donations for charity.

The details of the case surfaced after a cyber crime victim from Visakhapatnam registered a complaint with the police after he was scammed by the group. The victim transferred an amount of over six lakh rupees to various accounts after he received a bulk SMS stating that a UK woman wished to donate all her life savings (worth 5.5 million dollars) to charity. The victim sent his personal details, post which he was hounded by calls from people posing as officials from customs and insurance departments. He even received a call from people posing to be working at the Reserve Bank of India.

Inspector of Police Gopinath filed the complaint and proceeded to investigate the case, during which it was revealed that the four people behind the scam were Nigerian nationals, hiding in the national capital. One of the accused was nabbed by the police in Delhi. During the investigation, it was revealed that there were three others involved in the scam along with him. It was also revealed that the group may have been repeat offenders, with involvement in other online scams.

The police seized two laptops, six mobile phones, seven SIM cards, bank passbooks and cheque books, ATM cards, and liquid cash worth Rs. 55,000. A sum of over Rs. 1 lakh was also frozen in the bank accounts.

As the scam surfaced, city Police Commissioner RK Meena, along with DCP-1 S Ranga Reddy, issued advisories to the citizens to beware of online scams, where fraudulent groups pose as foreign nationals to contact people via bulk SMS, emails and Facebook to offer huge sums of money in charity.