According to the police, the duo has been identified as Ozoemena Michael Izuchukwu (29) and Ekwenze (33). They were arrested on Friday. The police said Izuchukwu had been living in the city even after his visa had expired. Ekwenze, too, was living here without a passport and a visa.
The police said the complainant has a profile on a matrimonial site. She alleged that one Ronald Howard from the US had sent a request to her for communication. She accepted his request and they started communicating through e-mails and phone.
On October 20, 2014, Howard informed the complainant that he was going to Spain from the USA and would courier her a gift box – containing some jewellery pieces, an engagement ring, a ladies’ bag, an apple MAC, an I Phone (I-5) and some clothes.
On October 22, 2014, the complainant received a call from a woman, who introduced herself as Simran Kaur from the customs department, Mumbai. Kaur told the complainant that there was a gift for her in a big parcel, which can be released to her only after she deposited a custom duty of Rs 42,500. The complainant transferred the money through NEFT.
She alleged that Kaur called again and demanded Rs 1.80 lakh more. The complainant got suspicious and enquired about the gift and the custom duty from the Mumbai customs department only to find that she had been cheated.
Based on her complainant, the Crime Branch registered a case.During technical investigation conducted by the Cyber Cell, Crime Branch, it was found that the e-mail ID used by the alleged people to entrap the complainant was in operation till January 2016. On May 12, a raid was conducted in the Mahavir Enclave area of Delhi and the duo was arrested, police said.
Three mobile phones, three laptops and two registers have been recovered, with entries of victims and amounts deposited by them, were recovered from their possession, police said.
The duo told the police that they used social networking sites such as Facebook, Jeevansathi.Com to collect the personal details of women. Izuchukwu used to contact these women, using a fake e-mail ID and obtained their phone numbers.
Once women fell into his trap, Izuchukwu them on the pretext of sending some gift items. Ekwenze, mostly posed herself as a woman customs officer, and contacted victims, asking them to deposit money in fictitious accounts. As the money was deposited in the account, the accused would immediately withdraw it.