Nigerian in Noida cheats Kumari woman of Rs 51.60 lakh, arrested

The cyber cell of Kanyakumari police arrested a Nigerian national after he was accused of conspiracy, money laundering, mail fraud and defrauding an elderly woman of Kappiyarai in the district.

The accused has been identified as Ebuka Francis (28) of Nigeria. The Nigerian criminal evaded police for a long time and a special team, which eventually tracked him down at Noida, where the police busted his hideout, in Uttar Pradesh, Kanyakumari Superintendent of Police V Badri Narayanan said. The arrest was made on Friday evening and the accused was remanded in judicial custody late night.

After being arrested, the team seized a laptop, seven cell phones, three SIM cards and two modems from him. Investigations revealed that the granddaughter of the elderly woman aged 61 Margaret, the complainant lost huge amounts of money after she’s deceived by the Nigerian and his associates. The granddaughter, an SSLC student, while attending online class with the aid of a cell phone on August 14, 2020, received an email communication that surprised Margaret, who’s attracted by the lure of quick money. The email sender named Jenifer Williams claiming as resident of London and charity donor in ailing health, wished to donate Rs 3.90 crore in US dollars to help the poor. Citing this, the sender informed Margaret that her cell phone was chosen to credit such huge amounts of money.

After taking note of this e-mail message, Margaret responded expressing her interest to receive the money. The complainant was then informed of taking permission from Reserve Bank of India as it’s a formal procedure before crediting huge amounts.

But, prior to crediting the huge money and ensure that, the complainant was asked to pay in installments. The Nigerian then e-mailed forged documents that appeared genuine Finally, Margaret was defrauded of Rs 51,60,336. Later, she became aware that she was deceived. Further, the SP said the prime accused Ebuka Francis is a habitual offender and two more, who are yet to be arrested, are behind such cyber crime.