Nigerian arrested for duping Thrissur native of Rs 2 crore on false promises

THRISSUR: A Nigerian has been arrested in a case of online fraud of Rs 1.90 crore from a Thrissur native. The Thrissur City Crime Branch team arrested the Nigerian identified as Austin Ogba. The fraud was committed by making various false promises via meeting through Facebook. The incident related to the case began on March 1. The Thrissur native met one of the accused women on Facebook.

The accused said that he had escaped to Turkey when the war broke out in Syria and that his two boxes containing US dollars and valuables in his possession were in the custody of the Middle East Vault Company in Egypt. He tricked him saying that he should send money to bring the boxes for authorization and received Rs 1 crore ninety lakhs over several days between March and June 2023.

The Thrissur native, who realized that it was a fraud, immediately went to the Ollur police station and filed a complaint. The case was handed over to the Crime Branch on the instructions of Thrissur City Police Commissioner R Ilango. The case was investigated by a special investigation team led by Crime Branch Assistant Commissioner Y Nizamuddin.

An examination on the documents of the money sent and documents related to Facebook revealed that an online fraud gang was behind this. The Nigerian national was arrested from East Mumbai by the Crime Branch investigation team with the help of Mumbai Police. The accused, who was produced in court, was remanded. The search for the other accused is ongoing.