Faridabad: The Faridabad police on Saturday arrested seven persons, including five foreign nationals, for allegedly duping people after befriending them on a social networking site. The suspects would befriend people on Facebook and then convince them to transfer money on the pretext of sending them high-value gifts and foreign currency, said the police. The police said they believe that with the arrests they have solved more than 100 such fraud cases.

According to the police, they received a complaint from a local resident on July 23 alleging that he has been duped of Rs 35,500. The Faridabad police commissioner, OP Singh, said that since he took charge he has taken up pending cases and have involved the cyber crime cell. “The gang members created fake social media profiles and befriended people by posing as women. They would tell the victims that they were sending a precious gift as a token of friendship or would propose them for marriage and stage drama that they are stuck at airport and make calls posing as customs officers and duped people on pretext of releasing gifts. They used to ask victims to pay custom duty and processing fees,” he said.

The suspects were identified as Williams Michael of Liberia, Promise Ebere Okoli, Halimat Mohammed, Okeke Nnabugo and Kenechukwi Okanta, all four from Nigeria. Besides, two persons from Ballabhgarh -- Anurag Singh and Nishant -- were also arrested. All the suspects were arrested from a rented house in Faridabad and were taken on four days’ police remand on Saturday after being produced before the court, said the police. The police said during questioning they revealed that they used to make fake profiles and contact people across the country.

Singh said Halimat Mohammed, a woman, posing as a London resident expressed her intention to marry the complainant and cheated him with the help of her aides, who posed as a customs official and a finance manager of Reserve Bank of India (RBI). After an investigation by the cyber cell, the police registered an FIR in the matter on July 23 at Faridabad police station. After chatting online and exchanging phone numbers, the woman suspect told him that she wanted to marry him and they decided to meet in July and sent some gifts through customs.

The suspect told him that she was coming to India in July. “In July, he received a call from a man who introduced himself as a customs officer at Mumbai airport. He told the complainant that he was required to pay fees as custom clearance for the woman, following which the victim transferred Rs 35,500 in two transactions to two different bank accounts,” Singh said. After two days, the victim allegedly again received a call from someone posing as an RBI official and asked him to deposit more money. The police said the victim did not buy the story and reported the matter to the police.

“Our cyber police team immediately set the numbers on surveillance and their locations were traced following which they were arrested from a house,” said Singh. Hailmat’s passport had expired, the police said, adding that the four others were holding passports of two countries.

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