Hyderabad: Two people including one foreign national from the Ivory Coast were arrested by the Cyber crime police for their involvement in a gift fraud case and cheating the complainant of Rs 1.22 crores.
The accused 34-year-old Bakayoko Lassina and Shoma Prasad scammed people online. Lassina would open fake facebook accounts and present himself as Dr Leonardo Matteo from Scotland and send friend requests to random people. The complainant, a resident of Hyderabad, accepted the friend request and started speaking to Lassina frequently.
Later, Lassina informed the complainant that he was sending the latter a gift parcel consisting of gold, diamonds and other articles.
The other accused, Shoma Purkayasta would then called the complainant and impersonate a customs officer. On the pretext of customs tax and other charges over the gifts, she would extracted money through online transfer by convincing the complainant that it was necessary to clear customs charges and taxes.
After receiving the money, they would then proceed to avoid the complainant’s calls and messages.
The duo were booked under Section 66 (c) (D) of the Information Technology Act and Sections 419 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Upon their arrest, 20 pass books, 8 check books, 12 mobile phones, Sim cards, laptops and ID cards were seized from the accused.
