The new modus operandi of a Nigerian gang arrested last month for fraud has come to light, as they clicked pictures of high-end cars parked in parking lots in the city, uploaded them on social network
The new modus operandi of a Nigerian gang arrested last month for fraud has come to light, as they clicked pictures of high-end cars parked in parking lots in the city, uploaded them on social networking sites and cheated people by promising to sell those cars to them and defrauded them in the process.
According to Colaba police, Mahendra Beedkar a victim, recently approached the police and said he had responded to an advertisment put up by the accused on a popular website for a BMW car. The accused convinced the victim that he lives in Australia and had come to India for office work, and wanted to sell his brand new car before he headed back down under.
“When the victim asked the accused in an email chat for the number plate of the car, the accused said he had brought the car on the way from his hometown,” a police official said. “He said he had removed the number plate in India. He said he had airport custom receipt and documents. When the victim asked the accused to show the insurance papers of the car, the accused told him he would show them when he came for test drive,” he added.
Crime PI, Colaba, Asasram Pathare said, “The accused asked the victim to pay Rs 1,25 lakh before trial and ‘booked’ the car. After Beedkar deposited money in the bank account he has given, within a minute they had withdrawn the money and vanished. After sending out the details of the accused to every state police of India, three more similar cases came to us from Gujrat and Madhya Pradesh.”
Four Nigerians and four Indians were in December from their Kharghar residence for allegedly committing online fraud across the state.
