By IANS,
Bhopal : Madhya Pradesh Police Tuesday claimed to have busted a gang involved in online fraud with the arrest of a Nigerian national and his Indian wife from New Delhi. The gang is said to have had links in the US, Britain and Nigeria.
“A Nigerian Emma Osaiku, 32, and his Indian wife Lal Manghai, 30, belonging to Manipur involved in phishing and hacking of bank accounts have been arrested by the cyber crime cell of the Madhya Pradesh Police from Arjun Nagar in Delhi Aug 22 and produced before the Patiala House court,” Inspector General of Police (Cyber) R.K. Mishra said.
Mishra said Emma had been handed over on transit remand, while his wife was released on a seven-day bail in view of her advanced stage of pregnancy.
“Five mobile phones, a pen drive and other documents were seized from their house in New Delhi. An MMS on the mobile revealed that they had links in the US and Britain”.
Emma, who was here on a business visa, is believed to be one of the organisers of the infamous ‘419’ scam with operational bases in Nigeria.
The ‘419’ fraud is named after the relevant section of the Nigerian Criminal Code.
The modus operandi of the gang was simple. The gang would identify its targets, usually job hunters who post their profiles on job sites. The gang would then promise them stay-at-home jobs.
Mishra said that the matter came to light when Manish Saxena from Lucknow called him and informed that Bhopal-based Monalisa Pandey had hacked Rs.1.90 lakh from his account.
When Monalisa was interrogated, it was revealed that she too was duped by someone on the promise of providing a job and she had also complained to Bhopal Police.
During investigations, the cyber crime cell came to know that some Nigerian national had hacked Saxena’s bank account and transferred Rs.1.90 lakh into Monalisa’s account.
Soon the crime cell zeroed in on Kachi Adiva alias Fank, who succeeded in giving police the slip. The police, however, discovered that Adiva was part of an international racket and Aug 22, they managed to arrest Emma and Lal Manghai, who too were associated with the racket.
“Since the IP address related to transfer of money from accounts has been traced to Nigeria we have written to the Interpol for further assistance,” Mishra said, adding the Nigerian embassy and immigration authorities have also been informed.