Nigerian Man Arrested for Defrauding Indian man by posing as tax officer

A 39-year-old Nigerian man was detained by the Uttarakhand special task force (STF) and cyber cell in India for allegedly defrauding a man of Rs 9.50 lakh under the pretense of assisting in the filing of income-tax returns and related refunds by assuming the identity of an Income Tax department official via email.

According to a statement released by the police on Thursday, February 16, 2023, the suspect, Ifeanyi Collins Chikwendu, was detained as part of an investigation into a fraud case in which the complainant Rajiv Dhenge was defrauded of the specified sum.

Dhenge had alleged that a few months ago, he had received an e-mail from an unidentified person claiming to be an IT officer. He spoke about filing the IT returns and related refunds and citing that he sought his bank details. Using those details, he then sought an online loan of Rs 25 lakh of which he immediately withdrew Rs 9.50 lakh from his bank account,? said Ayush Agrawal, superintendent of police (SP), STF.

He further added that during the probe using the cyber forensics techniques, the prime suspect was found to be Chikwendu.

It was later found that he is already lodged in Hyderabad central jail in another case of fraud. Our team reached there and arrested him in this case after completing the required legal procedure at the central jail. He is being brought to Dehradun,? Agrawal added.