Nigerian football coach, accomplice arrested in India for allegedly duping people through social media on pretext of sending expensive gifts, foreign currency

The Rachakonda Cybercrime Police in Hyderabad has arrested a Nigerian football coach and his Indian accomplice on charges of cheating people in the guise of sending valuable gifts and foreign currency on social media. 

The suspects identified as Henry Chukwudi Opara, 31, and and Suraj, 29, an auto-rickshaw driver from Uttar Pradesh were arrested on Saturday, April 17. Both are residents of Goutham Buddha Nagar in Greater Noida. 

According to the police, Henry who came to India on medical visa for a surgery, married a woman from Karnataka and settled in Hyderabad. He further joined as part time football coach in New Delhi, where he met his fellow Nigerians who committed online frauds including gift frauds, job frauds and loan frauds.

“Henry too adopted the same modus operandi to earn easy money and joined them and started cheating people online. They fraudulently procured the bank accounts to carry out their transactions,” police said.

In December 2020, they cheated a person from Hyderabad on the pretext of sending gift and foreign currency and fabricated a story that the parcel was caught by customs people at Delhi Airport, and to get it released made the victim transfer money into bank accounts provided by Suraj.

Following a complaint from the victim, the cybercrime police booked a case and with the help of technical clues traced and nabbed the suspects. They were produced before the court on Sunday and remanded in judicial custody.