Delhi Police Crime Branch arrested a 25-year-old man along with his two associates who were indulging in arranging bank accounts for Nigerian scamsters to facilitate them in cheating gullible people. This is in continuation of the recent arrest of a Nigerian national along with 21 ATM cards, 16 mobile phones and a PAN card. Seven more ATM cards, two bank passbooks and a cheque book have been recovered from them.
According to police, an email was received from an ID by the victim. The mailer pretended to be a young girl of 25 years, a medical student of Sudan, living in an orphanage of Senegal due to political crisis in her country. She used seductive phrases to entice him and gained his sympathy by portraying that her parents have been killed in the riots, leaving behind a big fund of $2.7 million and asked the victim to help her in getting this amount transferred by allowing her to deposit the same to his account.
During investigation, after receiving specific information, a Nigerian national Furtunatus Obinna, was arrested on December 16 and he stated that he used to purchase ATM cards from some agents who used to open such bank accounts just to sell for Rs 10,000 to 20,000.
After purchasing the ATM cards, he used to change their SMS alert mobile number to his own number through the ATMs. Thereafter, he used to send the details of the purchased bank accounts to his associates in Nigeria who would give these account numbers to the potential victims who were lured into their trap. As soon as the victims would deposit the money in these accounts, he used to withdraw this amount through ATMs after receiving the SMS alert. After keeping his share of 50 per cent, he used to send this money to his associates in Nigeria. He disclosed that he used to purchase ATM cards to operate other’s bank accounts from one John, a resident of a North-East India and others.