Facebook Love Trap Costs Rajkot Farmer ₹6.31 Lakh; Three Foreign Nationals Held

Rajkot: Rajkot Rural Cybercrime police have busted a cyber fraud racket run by three foreign nationals after a technical investigation led them to Greater Noida.

The accused 28-year-old Ghanaian Josephine Yaa Ansah alias Angel, 22-year-old Tanzanian Mgengeli Imani Denis, and 23-year-old South Sudanese Philip Batista Joseph Valentine were arrested and brought to Jasdan on a transfer warrant. Police said all three had overstayed their visas and allegedly turned to cybercrime to avoid deportation.

The fraud began in May 2026 when a farmer accepted a Facebook friend request from a profile named “Mary M Samuel.” Claiming to be the CEO of an overseas real estate company, the woman shifted the conversation to WhatsApp, gained the victim’s trust, and told him she was a widow looking to remarry.

She later claimed she was sending him an expensive parcel as a birthday gift for her daughter and collected his address and identity documents. Soon, another fraudster posing as a Delhi Airport customs official demanded money to clear a package allegedly containing 30,000 euros, a gold chain, a laptop, a wristwatch and an iPhone.

Believing the story, the farmer transferred ₹6.31 lakh in multiple transactions towards customs duty, currency conversion and clearance charges.

When the parcel never arrived and the demands for more money continued, the victim realised he had been duped. After discovering the courier company was fake, he filed a complaint on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal on June 2, 2026, leading to the registration of a case.

Rajkot Superintendent of Police Vijay Singh Gurjar said investigators tracked the accused by analysing social media accounts, mobile numbers, WhatsApp records, bank transactions and IP data. The digital trail eventually led the cybercrime team to Greater Noida, where the three accused were arrested. DeshGujarat