A man from Nigeria has been arrested from his rented accommodation in Faridabad in Haryana for allegedly duping a Lake Town woman, who had posted her profile on a matrimonial website, of more than Rs 80,000, police said.

Edwin Ngoesine Anideh, 29, was arrested on December 17 on the basis of a complaint lodged by the woman with the cyber crime police station in Salt Lake in August, an officer of the Bidhannagar commissionerate said.

The woman had mentioned in her complaint that she had posted her profile on a matrimonial website.

A few months ago, she was contacted by a man who identified herself as Kalpesh Patel, an Indian settled in Canada, an officer of the Bidhannagar commissionerate said.

“Preliminary investigations revealed that the complainant was contacted by the man from Nigeria, who had posted a fake profile on the matrimonial site pretending to be an Indian staying in Canada,” the officer said.

The two started chatting over the matrimonial website’s messenger service and eventually exchanged cellphone numbers.

“A few days later he told her that he had sent her gifts, including jewellery and cosmetics. from Canada. He then called her and said the bag containing the gifts had been seized by the airport authorities and that she had to pay customs and other duties to retrieve it. The man then gave the woman another cellphone number and asked her to transfer Rs 80,800,” the officer said.

The woman transferred the amount but no gifts reached her. She then tried calling up the man several times but could not get through to him. Finally both cellphone numbers ceased to be active, prompting her to lodge a complaint.

The cops, too, faced delays in tracking down the man because the phone numbers were inactive. No clues emerged even after putting the numbers under electronic surveillance.

Edwin was produced in a court in Haryana and brought to the city on transit remand. “It seems he has cheated several women in this fashion,” the officer said.

He has been charged under various IPC sections, including 420 (cheating).

A few days ago, the Nigerian used one of the numbers and the police tracked it down to Faridabad. A team was sent there.