The Cyber Cell of Pune police have arrested a South African national who lured a 30-year-old software development entrepreneur by asking him to shell out 1,350 US dollars (Rs 80,000) after promising him an investment of 1 million US dollars in his company.
This case is first-of-its-kind case reported where the fraudsters have used ‘LinkedIn’ – the professional networking site – to lure a businessman into a typical a “Nigerian Fraud”, said cyber police.
The accused has been identified as Adams Emma Juma (34), who gave his current address as Masjid Bunder in south Mumbai. Adams claims to be from Soweto suburb of Johannesburg in South Africa. He told police that he arrived in India in December 2013, but does not possess any valid passport, visa or other relevant documents to establish his claims. “We are going to contact the embassy officials for further procedure. As per the law, we have informed Adam’s friend Godfrey about his arrest,” said police inspector S M Babar of the Cyber cell.
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Adams was arrested on Wednesday night at around 11 pm. His other three accomplices Berry Brown, Jeffery Harvey and Lincoln are still at large. Owner of Ensarm Solutions and software development company Debashish Ramchandra Padhi (30), a resident of North Main Road in Koregaon Park and originally from Orissa, has lodged the complaint in this regard at Koregaon Park police station.
PI Babar said, “After coming across Padhi’s account on LinkedIn, they sent him a request to connect. When they hooked up on Saturday, Jeffery sent an email to Padhi stating that he was interested in investing 1 million dollars in his company. Later, Padhi mailed him a business proposal at Jefferey’s email address. Jeffery, however, insisted that Padhi pay up 1,350 US dollars up front as registration charges, taxes and other fees — a modus operandi similar to the ones used by Nigerian scamsters’”
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