Lucknow, Sep 16 (IANS): A 64-year-old man in Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow was allegedly duped of more than Rs 7 lakh by a Nigerian man, who made a fake social media profile as a woman and took the money in the name of sending return gifts on 'her' birthday, police said.

The man, a resident of Alambagh, has lodged a case with the cyber police.

The Nigerian man has been arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force for allegedly duping people of crores of rupees by creating fake social media profiles and then extorting money from them.

The accused has been identified as Jerome Balla a.k.a Sunday Dumaka and was arrested on Thursday from Delhi. Police have recovered six mobile phones, three SIM cards, 1 Nigerian voter ID card and Mastercard and a photocopy of a passport from his possession.

During interrogation, the accused revealed that he is a resident of Gini, Nigeria, and that he visited India in 2017. He then married a girl from India in 2018 and has been living in Delhi since then.

The police added that the accused created several IDs on various social media platforms and used to display pictures of foreign people to trap the victims.

The accused befriended the victims by impersonating as a man or woman from America, Germany or elsewhere. He even talked to them on phone by using voice changer software. With a promise to marry the victims, the accused even promised to send them lavish gifts.

Later, he used to call them up as a Customs Officer and pressure victims to pay 'customs duty' on the items received.

The accused also duped people by threatening to trap them in money laundering case and asked them to send money in various bank accounts, the police informed.