Nigerian Among 2 Held For Duping Australian Posing As Women  

Hyderabad: Two persons including a Nigerian were arrested on Thursday for honey trapping and duping a 60-year-old Australian man of 95,000 Australian dollars. The accused are Mohammed Hassani Barua (31), a Nigerian man, and his accomplice - Mohsin Agha (29), a resident of Tolichowki.

The victim who lodged a complaint with CID here told that he has lent money to an Australian woman living in Hyderabad named Sarah Haimish. He said that he met Sarah over a dating website and after chatting over a while both decide to marry when the woman moves to Australia.

“Sarah, who introduced herself as doing fabrics and gems business, told the victim that she had to pay about 2 lakh Australian dollars as tax settlement to get her dues of 2.1 million Australian dollars from the Indian government. She asked the victim to loan her some amount,” said Soumya Mishra, CID inspector-general.

The victim started sending money to bank accounts suggested by Sarah and from the month of June till January he had sent 95,000 Australian dollars. Meanwhile, as Sarah kept delaying her return to Australia, the victim came to the city a few days ago but failed to meet her despite several attempts.

The victim said that he met Sarah over a dating website and after chatting over a while both decide to marry when the woman moves to Australia

Realizing that he has been duped, the Australian national filed a complaint with CID and a case under sections 66-D of Information Technology Act, 2000 and 420 IPC was registered and a probe was launched.

The CID sleuths then dug out Axis Bank account details where the victim's money was transferred and tracked it to Mohsin and his Nigerian accomplice. The fraudsters confessed to sending attractive pictures of a fictitious woman to trap him.

Police have seized Rs20 lakh from their possession and the accused have been remanded to judicial custody.