Nigerian fraud resurfaces in Kerala post COVID-19

The Nigerian scam, a scourge of the digital age, appeared to have reared its head in Kerala after an assumably COVID-19 impelled hiatus of two years.

In a telling instance, online con artists had cheated a woman teacher in Kollam of an estimated ₹14 lakhs.

The case

A police official said the woman received recurrent WhatsApp messages on her mobile phone informing her that she had won an online lottery.

The sender informed her that she had hit the jackpot in a random draw for e-mail users.

However, he said, the winner must transfer ₹14 lakhs upfront to a bank account number as a processing fee and gift tax.

The teacher was initially sceptical. However, a few days later, she received a message purportedly from State Police Chief Anil Kanth warning her that she would face prosecution if she did not remit the gift tax amount.

The teacher ran from pillar to post to raise ₹14 lakhs, the amount demanded by the sender. She reportedly borrowed heavily and pawned her jewellery to muster the “advance gift tax”. The teacher transferred the money to the bank accounts specified by the sender.

However, the promised lottery amount did not materialise in her bank account. Her fortune remained illusory. The victim realised she had chased fool’s gold and contacted the State Police Headquarters.

Probe and arrest

The police immediately instituted an inquiry. Cyber police experts forensically examined the victim’s online transactions and communication. They also reportedly traced the bank account to which she had transferred money to Uttam Nagar under the Dabri Police station limits in New Delhi.

Investigators found that the suspected fraudsters had drawn the money they swindled from the teacher through some automatic teller machines in the locality. With the help of ATM surveillance camera images, the State police zeroed in on the accused and arrested two suspects, both Nigerian nationals.

The police said online advance free frauds had a global character and the suspects were mostly Nigerians. Law enforcement across the world referred to the crime as 419, the Nigerian criminal code for cheating.

According to a police estimate, hundreds of Keralites, lured by the promise of easy money, had fallen victims to Nigerian con artists. Many had lost vast amounts of cash.

The police had registered scores of cases over the years. However, they were just the tip of the iceberg and reflected only a fraction of the actual scale of the fraud. A majority of victims were women who were reluctant to pursue their complaints with the police.