Kanniyakumari District Cyber Crime Police have arrested a Nigerian in connection with online fraud involving ₹51.60 lakh extracted from a 61-year-old woman.
When the 15-year-old granddaughter of Margaret of Kappiyarai was attending an online class, she received an e-mail on August 14, 2020, from one Jeniffer Williams of London claiming that she, who was critically ill, had decided to give her savings of $3.90 million dollars to the poor. Since she had selected Ms. Margaret for giving the huge amount, Jeniffer Williams asked the woman to pay an amount in a particular account “towards payment for Reserve Bank of India” for receiving the huge sum.
As Ms. Margaret received a few ‘RBI-sealed documents’ through e-mail, she deposited money on various occasions to the account number given by Jeniffer Williams. When she realised that she had been cheated, Ms. Margaret had already paid ₹51.60 lakh, and she filed a complaint with Superintendent of Police V. Badri Narayanan, who deputed a special team to investigate the case.
Led by ADSP (Cyber Crime) Sundaram, the team started the probe. As the investigators found that the gang was based in Noida, U.P., Cyber Crime Inspector William Benjamin, Sub-Inspector (Technical) Berlin, and SI (Cyber Crime) Maheswara Raj went to Noida and nabbed Ebukka Francis, 28, a Nigerian, with a laptop used for the crime, seven mobile phones, three SIM cards and two modems.
The special team produced Ebukka Francis before a court there and brought him to Nagercoil, where he is being interrogated. Two more accomplices of Ebukka Francis are absconding, and efforts are on to nab them.
Mr. Badri Narayanan honoured the special team members with cash rewards and appealed to the public not to fall prey to phishing mails.
