Five persons of African origin sent to judicial custody for cheating via social media

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], January 8 (ANI): A court has sent five persons of African origin to judicial custody in Telangana's Rachakonda for cheating people after forming friendships on Facebook.
In November 2020, the victim came into contact with the fraudsters by accepting a friend request by the name of 'Sophia Alex' and started chatting via Whatsapp and voice calls. 'Sophia' narrated a fake story that 'she' was born and brought up from Australia and now lives in London. 'She' said that she also has a daughter.
The victim was told that 'Sophia' was coming to visit Hyderabad in a few days, but instead, she arrived at Mumbai. After a while, the complainant received a call from an unknown lady who introduced herself as a Customs officer at Mumbai. The 'lady' said that Sophia Alex brought along with her 75,000 pounds cash, gold chains and mobile phones in her luggage and asked to transfer amounts towards Yellow Taxes and other charges.
The victim believed the call to be genuine and transferred a total of Rs 4,83,000 in multiple transactions. However, it was soon realised that a fraud had been committed and the victim approached the cyber crimes police station of Rachakonda and requested for necessary action.
A case was registered under sections 417, 419 and 420 of Indian Penal Code as well as Sections 66-C and 66-D of IT Act on November 28, 2020. It was soon found out that the fraud was being done by five persons of African origin: Akpalu Godstime, Adjel Gift Osas, P. Ehigiator Daniel, Nkeki Confidence David and P.Kromah Oyibo N. All of them were brought on transit remand.
The police seized five mobile phones, five passports, Wifi broadband router and other incriminating materials from them.
Akpalu Godstime, a native of Ghana, is the mastermind behind this case. He contacted the victim under the guise of 'Sophia Alex' and also created fake details. He used to do the same with his other 'targets' and destroyed the phone and SIM card after the amount had been transferred from the victims.
These fraudsters were using Dingtone app (to display their targeted country code) to cheat the innocents. They used to spend the money on parties and a luxurious lifestyle. They have today been sent to the judicial custody where the police will obtain required information for further investigation. (ANI)