Three men, including two Africans, were arrested for allegedly duping a Meghalaya-based businesswoman of over Rs 20 lakh, police said Friday.
Osei Prince (27), a Ghana national, Diarra Habib (22), a Ivory Coast national, were arrested along with Maxerick Syiemlieh (19), a resident of Meghalaya, on Wednesday, they said.
The businesswoman alleged that couple of months ago, a person, who claimed to be based in the UK and went by the name Owen Galvin, became her Facebook friend, a senior police officer said.
He said after some time, Galvin told her that he is sending USD 50,000 for her as a gift.
After a few days, she received a call from an unknown person who said he was calling from the Customs office, according to the officer.
The person informed the woman that the office had received a parcel from the UK and informed that for its clearance, she had to pay Customs duty, he said.
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She deposited the money, but again a demand for more money in the name of GST and Income Tax was made. By this way, she was duped to the tune of Rs 20,64,384, the officer said.
Later, she approached police in Shillong and filed a complaint in the Meghalaya capital.
During investigation, Shillong police obtained call records of the mobile numbers from which the complainant had allegedly received calls.
It was found that the location of the suspects was in Mahavir Enclave area in Delhi, the officer said.
Dwarka District police was requested to assist and help them in the investigation, he said.
Following a request from Shillong police, the Delhi Police obtained the mobile numbers of the suspects, analysed their call details and phone IMEI numbers, the officer said.
Police also analysed statements of bank accounts and visited the places from where the amount was withdrawn. They also analysed footage of CCTV cameras installed in the area, he added.
On Wednesday, police arrested the three accused from Shivam Apartment, Mahavir Enclave-1.
During interrogation, they disclosed that they used to approach people through Facebook, WhatsApp and other online media. They had made many fake Facebook accounts in different names, police said.
They used to tell their Facebook friends that they would receive precious gifts from them.
The accused duped poeple on the pretext of clearance from Customs and Income Tax departments, the officer said.
Ten mobile phones, Rs 8,500, five laptops, internet dongles, ATM cards, passbooks were recovered from their possession, he said.
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