pretending to be a lady on Instagram. He has been arrested by operatives
of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of Lagos State Police Command.
Falope according to a statement by the Police was arrested when
officials of the RRS decoy team, who had been monitoring him for some
weeks, trailed him to a popular club in Ikeja City Mall on Thursday
evening.
The officers were reported to have monitored him, and those he was
interacting with at the club before arresting him and a colleague late
in the night.
It was gathered that the suspect recently celebrated his birthday at Hard & Rock, Lekki, Lagos, week
before his arrest, where he spent 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 allegedly 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.
“I had to transfer N1million to her. Weeks later, I grew 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”.
Another victim, who did not want his identity disclosed said he paid
N100, 000 into her account to support her bogus fashion outfit.
Admitting the allegation, the suspect noted that since he started the
fraudulent act about two years ago, he had duped no fewer than 33 men
pretending to be a lady on Instagram and that the least amount he
received from any of them was N80,000.
“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.
“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.
Investigations revealed that the owner of the profile pictures the
suspect used, @Shayla had complained to Instagram that some Nigerians
were using her profile pictures to scam unsuspecting members of the
public.
It was also disclosed that the suspect claimed to be a friend of Toke
Makinwa, Tonto Dike, Don jazzy, Peter Okoye, Toyin Aihmaku, Tee Y Mix,
Oristsefemi, Timaya, Sean Tizzle, Dami Adenuga, Femi Otedola, Mike
Adenuga jnr, Ramsey Noah e.t.c.
“I know all of them. I attend a lot of shows, I meet them, take
photographs with them, even exchange numbers. Like sister Toke Makinwa,
Tonto Dike, Uncle Ramsey Noah, these are the kind of celebrities I look
up to and I want to be like them”, he stated.
But RRS investigators confirmed that he was following a lot of Nigerian
celebrities on Instagram but they could not confirm if any of them fell
prey to Falope’s antics, as many his Instagram chats with them got no
response.
They added that a Ghanaian business man who Falope claimed to have met
at a popular club in Nigeria rebuffed his request to engage him in a
chat.
They noted that Falope claims of being a halfcast, Fashion designer,
stylist, cosmetologist, model were all part his fraud to make people
fall for him. He was never a trainee or a specialist in any of this.
Our source added that he is not an half cast as he claimed to be, rather he bleached his skin.
“He didn’t deny this claim. He admitted bleaching his skin to escape the
taunting of girls that he was a very ugly guy”, the source stated.
Items recovered from the suspect included, 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 world wide.
The suspect has been transferred to State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) for further investigations.
Source – Thenationonlineng.net