How 19-yr-old Nigerian duped Cambodian woman $75,000

Chigemezu Aribike, a 19-year-old internet fraudster, has narrated how he duped a Cambodian women of the sun of $75,000.

Aribike made the narration after he was arrested by operatives of the Inspector General of Police Special Intelligence Responses Team, IRT, in Imo State.

The suspect had opened a fake Facebook and Instagram accounts using the name and pictures of an American pilot, after which he approached the victim, Sophanmia on a dating site and told her that he was a pilot working for a British airline.

The suspect, while speaking with reporters, said: l am 19 years old and I attended Community School, in Eziooha area of Ibitolu.

‘I graduated in October 2018. It was Ugochukwu my friend who taught how to do internet fraud. Ugochukwu used to communicate with Oyibo people on the internet and whenever he was chatting, I would be monitoring to learn.

“After, I started my own. I opened a fake fakebook account with the name Frank William and on Instagram I was Patrick William. I used a picture of a pilot which I saw on Instagram.

“I downloaded his pictures and I uploaded them on my fake fakebook and Instagram pages. I also used the same picture on Instagram and the pilot later discovered that I used his pictures and he started complaining. He was all over the social media complaining.

“He even said that he has been arrested three times by the police and he said he is not the one duping people. My Facebook account was later blocked, then I focused on Instagram, where I met the client that paid me this money. I followed her and we started charting then I told her that I was from London and I was a pilot.

“Then I gave her my name and we started discussing about life. Then I told the woman that I wanted to send her some gifts and a large sum of money to her from London. I told her that I wanted to send expensive cloths, shoes, wrist watches and the sum of $500,000. I told her that the $500,000 would be invested in real estate business.

“Then I sent her pictures of the items I wanted to send to her and the money, which would be inside a box. Then I told her that I sent the money through a courier company and she would have to pay customs tax. My friend in Indonesia acted like the courier company and they contacted her.

“She was given the first bill of $800 and she paid and the delivery guy on Indonesia called the woman again and told her that the gifts had been seized and they told her to pay $2700.

Read also: EFCC arrests 9 suspected internet fraudsters in Abuja

“She paid the money and they asked her to pay another money, which was $6200 and she paid several other monies to have the goods released. She ended up paying the sum of $75,000 and I got my share.”

According to a police source, the victim, in her quest to get the gift and money from the bank, also took loans from the bank, which she also sent to the fraudster.

Sensing something funny, she was said to have alerted the Nigerian Embassy in Cambodia, when she discovered that the said pilot, who was communicating with her was calling her from Nigeria and not the United State of America.

The Nigerian Embassy in Cambodia, after listening to the victim and analyzing data she provided to them, were said to have alerted the Inspector General of Police, Adamu Mohammed, and operatives of the IRT, led by Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari were detailed to track down the suspect who was discovered to be based in Ibitolu area of Imo State.

The suspect was tracked and arrested with the sim card and the phone used in committing the crime.

The source said: “When we went through the phone we saw chats between the suspect and the victim.

“Upon interrogation, the suspect confessed to everything and he also said there was a guy in Indonesia who helped him pull out the money from a USA bank account.

“He claimed to be an American and that was why he gave the woman an American bank account. The worst was that the woman went and borrowed the money from the bank.”

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