Officers of the Colaba police station on Tuesday arrested four Nigerians for committing over 500 online frauds across the state.

The four, Michael Ibel (38), Umu Uchena (39), Emanuel Okafa (24) and Anatony Wisdok (36), were said to be operating from a rented residence in Kharghar over the past few months. The police said the arrested people were part of a 12-member gang of fraudsters that operated across the state and the country.

The gang recently duped a 39-year-old senior football coach of a south Mumbai school of Rs 31,000 after they fraudulently got hold of his bank card details and siphoned off the money in six different transactions. Based on the complaint received on November 28, deputy commissioner of police (zone I) Ravindra Shishve formed a team from the Colaba police station and tracked down the Nigerians through their number obtained from WhatsApp, which they had used to contact their victims.

The police said the arrested people had followed different methods to dupe their victims. "The most recent modus operandi they had been using was the sending of a friend request on Facebook to target people, especially women, promising valuable gifts or a good overseas job," an investigator said.

The police acted on a tip-off to lay a trap in Kharghar. "Over a dozen mobile SIM cards, ATM cards, and Rs 1.85 lakh were seized," a police officer said. "Eight out of the 12 fraudsters managed to escape."

Naija eh...

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