Marriage scam: Nigerian man arrested in India for duping Australian national out of $95,000 on dating site

Telangana Crime Investigation Department (CID) has arrested a 31-year-old Nigerian national Mohammed Hassani(31) and his Hyderabadi associate, Mohsin Agha (29) for swindling a 60-year-old Australian citizen, Gregory David Sim out of $95,000 with the help of a Nigerian woman.


The Nigerian woman, who developed friendship through a dating site with Gregory David Sim and two other Nigerians involved in the case were still at large. 

"The gang lures men with marriage alliance through dating websites and tricking them into parting with money is their modus operandi" CID,Cyber Crime, Additional SP. U. Rammohan said.


The Australian divorcee, whose hobby is browsing dating sites, came in contact with the Nigerian woman. She introduced herself as Sarah Haimish a year ago and started chatting with him regularly. Six months of chatting and mails later, they decided to get married.
David, a retired sewerage mechanic, told her that his mother was from Australia and father from Turkey and that he had divorced his wife 20 years ago. In response, she told David that she was also a divorcee and currently engaged in supplying fabrics and gems in India.
However, she was stuck here since she had to ‘get dues worth $2.1 million from the government’, for which she had to ‘pay’ $210,000 as tax settlement. During a phone conversation with David, she used to give her phone to Moshin Agha introducing him as her manager who would look after transactions.
When she told him that she could return to Australia if she settles tax, David transferred $95,000 into an Axis Bank account maintained by Agha. Prior to this, he also transferred money in small installments, a CID official said.
"It’s a well-planned crime executed since January 2016. She took necessary precautionary measures to avoid David from suspecting her. After he started trusting her, the gang began seeking money from him,” the official said.
After the amount was transferred into Agha’s account, she asked David to meet her in Hyderabad. Accordingly, he flew to Hyderabad to meet her but he could not find her. She told him she had been to Dubai on some business and the Australian flew to Dubai as well but couldn't contact her.
From Dubai, the Australian went back to Adelaide and returned to Hyderabad where lodged a complaint with the CID. Hunt was on to catch the remaining two Nigerians men and 'Sarah Haimish'