TVC E. Falope Oluwole Israel, a 22-year old suspect arrested by operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of Lagos State Police Command, has disclosed that he duped over 33 men while pretending to be a lady on Instagram.
Falope was arrested when officials of the RRS decoy team, trailed him to a popular club in Ikeja City Mall on Thursday evening, after monitoring him for some weeks.
It was gathered that the suspect recently celebrated his birthday at Hard & Rock, Lekki, Lagos, week before his arrest, where he lavished over half a million on foods and drinks.
The suspect, a 100 level part time student of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Ogba, Lagos, who confessed committing the crime, said that he has been in the business for more than two years.
The Police revealed that Falope’s activities on Instagram was placed under investigations when it received a complaint about an Instagram handle @blackberbiedoll, used for criminal activities, which was later traced to him.
Apart from @blackberbiedoll, which he prominently used for fraudulent activities, he maintained @froshwhite007 and @froshwhite separately for same purpose.
The complainant, Bernard stated that he got a friend request from @blackberbiedoll.
“Apparently, the picture on the account was that of a lady. The lady in question messaged me on BBM. Honestly, I thought I was chatting with a woman who claimed to be in Nigeria at the time.
“She lied to me that her father was a Nigerian and her mum, a Kenyan, and so we got talking. At a point, she lied that she was building a beauty outfit in Ikota Shopping Mall, VGC and that she was in need of some money to complete the mall,” Bernard added.
He explained further,
“I had to transfer N1 million to her. Weeks later, I got suspicious of the account name Olawole Israel Oluwaseun Falope. I ran a search on Google, and then discovered it was all scam…. Immediately, I reported the incident to Instagram and that account was blocked and later suspended to prevent others from falling victim.”
Falope said: When I started, much as I pretended to be a lady on phone, some men on the other side didn’t believe me. I then downloaded an app on Google which transformed my voice into that of a lady whenever I am having conversation…. I got several pictures of Shayla, a pretty United States based lady on my profile. Since then, men have been disturbing me and calling to request for a date,” he stated.
He said,
“What I do is that I assess people based on their appearance on Instagram, add them and thereafter open up conversations with them before I start bringing up all manners of stories in order to dupe them…. At a point, I lied to most of them that I had an accident and I lost my ATM. I told them that I need some money. Some of them were generous enough to drop money into my account.”
“I lied to them that I was putting up a boutique and saloon at Ikota, VGC and Lekki, and that I need money to finish setting up…. I know I made a mistake downloading Shayla’s pictures and used them for fraudulent purposes. I am telling you the truth, those that I have collected money from cant be more than 33,” he explained.
RRS investigators confirmed items recovered from the suspect includes, an iphone 6, 1 Samsung Galaxy A5, an Apple tablet, hand and neck chains, some new notes and a handbag.
Confirming the development, the Police Public Relations Officer, Suprintendent Dolapo Badmos, warned Nigerains to be careful on the internet because scammers are on the prowl worldwide.
The suspect has been transferred to State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) for further investigations.
