- The modus operandi used by the imposters involved sending WhatsApp messages to people, mostly government officials, asking for financial favours, in the form of Amazon gift cards, Paytm or any other digital payment method
The Punjab Police have arrested two Nigerian men from Delhi and with it busted an international cyber fraud racket which had duped government officials and common people by impersonating important personalities like cabinet ministers, police officers and bureaucrats, director general of police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav said in Chandigarh Thursday.
Those arrested have been identified as Anioke Hyginus Okwudili alias Poka and Franklyn alias William, both hailing from Lagos in Nigeria and currently residing in Delhi. The police also recovered one Canara Bank debit card, various gadgets, mobile phones, laptops, expensive watches and passports, the DGP said in his statement.
The modus operandi used by the imposters involved sending WhatsApp messages to people, mostly government officials, asking for financial favours, in the form of Amazon gift cards, Paytm or any other digital payment method, said Yadav. In the last few months, the fraudsters duped numerous people by posing as cabinet ministers, DGP Punjab, chief secretary Punjab and other Indian Administrative Service (IAS)/Indian Police Service (IPS) officers, he added.
With these arrests, made in the last four days, the Punjab Police have dug up another trail, leading to deep-rooted cyber fraud nexus spreading from Delhi and involving mainly Nigerian nationals with a few Indian associates, Yadav said.
Inspector general of police, cyber crime, RK Jaiswal, said after an extensive hi-tech investigation and reliable information from WhatsApp, the state cyber cell got some major leads, following which three different police teams were constituted and assigned tasks of financial, technical and fieldwork to investigate and nab the accused. He said that a police team under the supervision of deputy superintendent of police (DSP), cyber crime, Samarpal Singh, comprising two inspectors and other police personnel, was sent to Delhi.
The IG said that the police team in a joint operation with the Delhi Police managed to catch the accused Anioke while he was withdrawing money from the ATM located near Vikas Puri in New Delhi.
“During interrogation, the accused Anioke alias Poka revealed that WhatsApp accounts were hacked from Nigeria and he used to withdraw the money from ATM cards of bank accounts opened using fake documents in different parts of the country and then handover the money to their kingpin, namely Franklin alias William, who further used to electronically transfer the money to Nigeria,” Jaiswal stated, adding that “the police teams have also arrested Franklyn after a hot chase”.
The state cyber crime cell had also conducted raids in Assam, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Rajasthan in a bid to nab the culprits.
Nilambari Jagadale, DIG, cyber crime, said that “the arrest of the kingpin with the recovery of almost 108 GB of data opened a realm of information revealing the magnitude of the financial transactions, amounting to lakhs of rupees every day”.
“The information containing screenshots of the allegedly impersonated IDs and transactions amounting to crores of rupees recovered has been sent for forensic analysis for further probe into drug linkage, hawala transactions, and modus operandi of the entire realm of operations,” she added.
During investigations, two bank accounts were identified initially and after analysis of these bank accounts, it emerged that the money from the two bank accounts was further siphoned to four bank accounts and thereafter to 11 bank accounts thereby putting a network of extensive layering, the DIG said, adding that after breaking this mesh layering network, it was found that the money was being withdrawn from multiple ATMs from the area of Vikas Puri, Ganesh Nagar, Tilak Nagar and Nangloi in New Delhi.
First published in Indian Express
