Two Nigerian nationals who created a fake Facebook page in the name of a private hospital and defrauded over 500 people were arrested by a special police team here on Saturday.
The accused were identified S. Kolin Stonty (29) and O. Ogova Stephen (32).
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In his complaint to the police in March, managing director of Kalyani Kidney Care Centre M. Prabhakar said the fake Facebook page carried a picture of a doctor working in his hospital with a message that donors would get ₹ 3 crore for a kidney. It also asked the donors to forward ₹ 15,000 towards registration fee in a savings bank account with a nationalised bank in Mizoram.
The complainant said that many had deposited the fee in the bank account and kept calling the hospital as they could not obtain any further information by calling the phone number given in the Facebook page.
Based on the complaint, the police blocked two such pages. Since no arrests were made, the hospital continued to receive phone calls from people expressing their willingness to donate their kidneys.
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On June 4, Erode North police station registered a case against unknown persons and formed two special teams. The teams picked up the accused in Bengaluru and brought them to Erode. Inquiries revealed that the two had cheated over 500 people across the country. Laptops, mobile phones, ATM cards, bank pass books and a car were seized from them. They were produced in the court and lodged in prison on Saturday.