Nigerian national held for duping people by hacking mobile phones

The Delhi Police's Cyber Cell has arrested a Nigerian national for allegedly hacking into people's phones and sending distress messages to the WhatsApp contacts seeking money, police said on Monday.

The police nabbed Chimelum Emmanuel Aniwetalu alias Maurice Degri who along with others operated the syndicate from Delhi and Bengaluru, they said.

Another accused has also been identified, police said, adding that raids are underway to nab him.

According to the police, the matter came to light after the Cyber Cell unit received a complaint from a victim who alleged that his mobile phone was hacked by unknown people.

He alleged that after taking control of his phone, the accused posed as a victim and started asking for money from people on the WhatsApp contact list by sending them distress messages, police said.

The complainant further alleged that the accused contacted those who were on WhatsApp of the hacked mobile and also provided a back account to them for transferring money, the police said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber Cell) KPS Malhotra said technical and human intelligence led to identification of one of the accused and he was arrested under appropriate section of the law.

In total, 15 mobile phones and a laptop were also seized from his possession, he said.

"Through the seized laptop of the accused, we found out that they used applications which are being used to design various malware links", he said.

These links disguised in the form of some application were sent to to the victim's devices, officials said.

The accused created a dedicated application for each victim which when downloaded and installed on the victim's phone sends its contacts, call logs and SMS on the accused server, the officer explained.

Further interrogation of the accused also revealed about his most prominent modus operandi which was to impersonate as a girl and then befriend other people on social media websites, police said.

Once the person developed trust, the accused would then subsequently send a link, which used to be disguised in some manner, Malhotra said.

"Once the person clicks on that link, he or she would loose control over their social media profiles. Thereafter, Emmanuel used to operate the social media accounts for his nefarious goals. The accused has also cheated people on the pretext of selling herbal seeds," the DCP said.

Emmanuel is from Nigeria and his visa expired in 2018. The police said the accused created fake documents and has also been booked under Foreigner Act. The house owner, who had rented his premises to the accused, has also been booked accordingly, police added.