How I swindled 33 men on Instagram, disguising as a woman

Falope Oluwole Israel, a 22-year-old suspect arrested by operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of the Lagos State Police Command, has disclosed that he defrauded over 33 men while pretending to be a lady on Instagram.

Falope 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, before arresting him late in the night.

It was gathered that the suspect recently celebrated his birthday at a highbrow lounge in Lekki, Lagos, a week before his arrest, where he lavished over half a million naira on food and drinks.

The suspect, a 100-level part-time student of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Ogba, Lagos, said he has been in the business for more than two years.

The police revealed that Oluwole’s activities on Instagram were 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.

One of his victims, Bernard, said 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.

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 N1 million to her. Weeks later, I became suspicious of the account name, Olawole Israel Oluwaseun Falope. I ran a search on Google, and then discovered it was all a 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 allegations, the suspect noted that since he started the fraudulent act about two years ago, he had defrauded 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.

“I downloaded an app on Google, which transformed my voice into that of a lady whenever I was having conversation on the phone. 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.