Imo State Police Command has arrested a young Nigerian man for pretending to be an American pilot and defrauding a Cambodian woman to the tune of N27.4 million.

The 19-year-old secondary school graduate identified as Chigemezu Arikibe was able to pull off his fraud using a fake Instagram account.

Parading himself as an American pilot, he was able to convince the woman to part ways with the huge sum of money. Meanwhile, he connived with one of his friend who acted as a courier agent.

The Cambodian woman only got to realize she was dealing with a fraudster after she noticed he was calling with a Nigerian phone number.

Thereupon, she contacted the Nigerian embassy in Cambodia and they subsequently contacted the Nigerian Police.

Apparently, the woman had to take some loan from the bank to send him all those monies. Meanwhile, he promised her several goodies and 500,000 USD for real estate business.

According to a police source, “The suspect was arrested with the SIM card and the phone he used in committing the crime and when we went through the phone, we saw chats between him and the woman.

“Upon interrogation, the suspect confessed to everything and he also said there was a man in Indonesia who helped him pull out the money from a USA bank account,” the source continued. “He claimed to be an American and that was why he gave the woman an American bank account. The worst was that the woman went and borrowed the money from the bank.”

The 19-year-old suspect revealed how he was able to deceive the woman. He said: “I told her that I have sent the money through a courier company and she would have to pay customs tax. My friend in Indonesia acted like the courier company and they contacted her.

“She was given the first bill of $800 and she paid,” He continued. “My Indonesian friend called the woman again and told her that the goods had been seized and they told her to pay $2,700.”

“She paid the money and they asked her to pay another money which was $6,200. She paid several other monies to have the goods released. She ended up paying $75,000 and I got my share.”