Police have arrested a Nigerian man, Stephane alias Dominic, alongside his accomplices, for allegedly defrauding women in India through online scams.

The 29-year-old Stephen, who posed as a UK-based Korean businessman on a language exchange app, was arrested in west Delhi’s Tilak Nagar after duping over 100 women, with one victim, Anjali, reporting a loss of Rs 48,500.

He targeted single women, gained their trust, and then spun elaborate lies about being stuck at immigration with cheques or documents needing clearance. His associates would impersonate officials, demanding money for his “release”.

According to Hindustan Times, Stephane, who was operating online under the aliases “Dominic” and “Duck Young,” was arrested on Monday, September 29, from a rented apartment in Tilak Nagar, West Delhi.

Authorities tracked the suspect using call records, bank accounts, and social media, leading them to recover a mobile phone containing fake profiles and chats with over 100 women.

During interrogation, he admitted entering India in 2019 on a six-month tourist visa with an Ivorian passport to circumvent the restrictions faced by Nigerians. After overstaying his visa and depleting his funds, he turned to cyber fraud to sustain himself.

However, other past criminal records have proven the detention of some Nigerians who had engaged in cyber fraud in India in previous times, just like Oliver Ugwu Okechukwu, a 47-year-old Nigerian man, who was arrested in Mumbai for allegedly scamming a woman from Karnataka of Rs 5.5 lakh (about N9.5 million) with a false promise of marriage.

Okechukwu posed as “Satya Amit,” a supposed London-based professional, and contacted the Indian woman after finding her profile online. He claimed to have landed in India but ran into trouble with airport customs officers who allegedly seized foreign currency worth Rs 1 crore. He requested Rs 5.5 lakh from the woman to resolve the issue, which she wired into a bank account he provided. (Nigerian Tribune)