Gang using ‘Nigerian fraud’ active in Rawalpindi
A gang of conmen expert in advance fee scam also known as ‘Nigerian fraud’ is active in Rawalpindi, police officials warned on Sunday.
“These people offer huge amount of dollars or any other foreign currency and ask for a fee to make the free money available, once the pocket the fee they disappear,” a police officer told The Express Tribune.
Gujjar Khan police have registered a case against five suspects including two people from an African country for swindling money from a citizen after befriending him on social networking site of Facebook.
The victim Jahangir Khan told the police that he befriended Ishtiaq Hussain, Naeem Iqbal, and Naeem Khursheed on Facebook.
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The suspects told Jahangir that they were sending him the $100,000 through a courier with which they would start a joint business in Pakistan. The conmen introduced him to two people on Facebook, named Nanamdi Desmond and Kaycee, who claimed that they were from Nigeria and wanted to bring the investment to Pakistan so as avoid legal issues in their home country.
The suspects told the complainant that they had also sent a cellphone worth Rs350,000 from Yemen as a gift.
Blinded by the sweet talk of the swindlers, Jahangir fell into their trap.
Finally, the suspects called Jehangir on his moblile phone and said that they have returned to Pakistan and asked him to meet them at a hotel near Gujjar Khan.
They asked Jahangir to entrust them with Rs270,000 as his courier had reached Pakistan and needs customs clearance.
The suspects promised that they would return the money to the victim once he would receive the parcel. However, they disappeared after receiving the money.
The complaint told the police that Ishtiaq Hussain, Naeem Iqbal, and Naeem Khursheed and their foreign friends Nanamdi Desmond and Kaycee are also involved in swindling him along with Pakistani nationals.
Police have registered a case and started the investigation.
Police officers shared that the online s cams referred to Nigerian letter frauds combine the threat of impersonation fraud with a variation of an advance fee scheme in which a letter mailed, or e-mailed, from a foreign country, mostly in Africa, offers the recipient the opportunity to share in a percentage of millions of dollars that the author—a self-proclaimed government official—is trying to transfer illegally out of his country.
Payment of taxes, bribes to government officials, and legal fees are often described in great detail with the promise that all expenses will be reimbursed as soon as the funds are spirited out of the country.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 1st, 2021.