New Delhi, Jan 8 (IANS): Police has arrested five members of a gang led by a Nigerian who duped a woman of Rs seven lakh after befriended her on a dating app by posing as a US citizen, a senior police officer said on Friday.

The complainant said that she had accessed a profile in the name of Dr Vijay Giri on an online dating app. She became friends with the account holder and began chatting with him on WhatsApp. The person posing as Dr Giri claimed that he was a US Citizen but based in the UK and wanted to meet her. He also asked her to look for some house in Delhi for his stay.

After around 10 months, the woman received calls from 'Dr Giri' that he had landed in Mumbai but was stuck with Customs officials for carrying foreign currency and extra luggage and hence needed money to pay fine and bribe.

On his request, she transferred funds in various bank accounts as directed. She was thus cheated of approximately Rs 7 lakh.

Those arrested include racket kingpin and Nigeria national Chijioke, Prakash Gurung, Paras Mehto, Ankit (all from Nepal), and Vinay Kumar from Champaran in Bihar.

Chijioke and his brother Frank Obinna ran the racket while Prakash brought people from Nepal and opened their accounts in various banks using fake IDs prepared by Vinay. They also obtained phone SIM cards on those fake IDs. The kingpin paid Rs 1 lakh for each fake bank account and used their ATM and debit cards to cheat gullible people out of their money.