Cyber Fraud: Over 100 people fell prey to customs fraud; Foreigner held

New Delhi: Delhi Police’s Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) has busted a nexus of Cyber criminals and arrested a Ghana national allegedly involved in duping Indian people on the pretext of custom clearance to receive high-value gifts from foreign countries.

As per the reports, the accused, Godfrey Appia alias King Kevin, was trained to talk in both male and female voice with which he befriended people on social media websites. Later, after winning their trust, he would tell them that he has sent them a high value gift for which he would ask the victim to pay for custom clearance.

Deputy commissioner of police (IFSO) KPS Malhotra said they received a complaint wherein the victim alleged that he was duped of more than Rs 12 lakh on the pretext of custom clearance.

During the probe, police found that, in May 2022, the complainant befriended a foreigner, who identified herself as Salviya Graffin, on a social networking site. He started chatting with her and, gradually, the latter gained his confidence and told him that she had sent him a gift.

“Later, he started receiving phone calls from unknown people, claiming to be from the Customs and other agencies, and asking him to pay for the clearance of the gift,” police said.

Technical analysis and financial trial led to the identification of the suspect, Godfrey Appiah. A raid was conducted and Appiah was nabbed from his flat.

He came to India in 2018 for medical treatment. After the expiry of his visa, he did not go back and was staying on forged documents.

(Inputs from Agencies