Gurugram, Apr 6 (IANS): With the arrest of four people including a Nigerian national, the Gurugram police claimed to have busted a gang that allegedly duped women by befriending them over social media, officials said on Thursday.

According to the police, a complaint was received on March 22 from a woman who claimed that in January 2023 she received a friend request from an Instagram ID in which the person introduced himself as a doctor based in the UK and they started talking over the phone.

After a few days, the man said he has sent gold and 20,000 pounds for her. On January 30, 2023, she got a call from a girl who introduced herself as an employee of a courier company. The girl told her that gold and foreign currency have arrived in her name, for which she will have to pay some taxes, the victim woman told the police.

Thereafter, the victim woman transferred the amount.

According to the police, she was duped of Rs 16 lakh in total and the accused even threatened to implicate her in a false case.

Following this, the woman reported the matter to the police and a case was registered in the cyber crime police station (east), Gurugram.

During the probe, the police nabbed four accused identified as Chibuke, Aman, Rahul and Santosh Kumar involved in the alleged crime on Wednesday.

On interrogation, the accused revealed that Chibuke - the Nigerian national - was deported from Mumbai eight years ago, and had now returned to India on Senegal (a Country in West Africa) passport. He was continuously active in carrying out such crimes.

"The accused used to befriend young women via social media and duped them in the name of sending parcels or gifts. The accused used to run the alleged scam in a group. We recovered 25 mobile phones, 65 debit cards, 34 chequebooks, 12 passbooks and cash from their possession," Priyanshu Diwan, ACP (cybercrime) said.