Nigerian arrested for impersonating police chief in India

The Thiruvananthapuram city cyber-crime police on Tuesday arrested a Nigerian national from New Delhi in connection with an online financial fraud in the name of state police chief Anil Kant.
Romanes Chiboochi was behind the fraud in which a Kollam native was swindled of Rs 14 lakh, police said. He was arrested from Anand Vihar, Uttam Nagar, in New Delhi.

The arrested person, who was produced in Dwarka court on Tuesday, will be brought to the state on Wednesday. Police said that the mobile phones of the Nigerian national that was used for the fraud have also been seized. The complainant, Anitha, a teacher based at Kundara in Kollam, had received a message that she has won an online lottery and Rs 14 lakh has to be paid as tax, failing which a case will be booked against her name.

After she ignored the message, she received a WhatsApp message with a photo and details of the state police chief, saying that he (the DGP) was in Delhi and the money had to be transferred to the account number specified before he returns to the state. Following this, she inquired with the office of the state police chief from where she was informed that the police chief was indeed in New Delhi.

Finding that the information received regarding SPC’s location from the state police headquarters matched with what she received in the WhatsApp message and believing that the message was legitimate, she immediately remitted the money to the account number specified in the WhatsApp message. After realising that she has been duped, she filed a complaint with the police.