I used Google app to transform my voice to that of a lady to convince men —Suspect

A 22-year-old suspect, Falope Oluwole has allegedly confessed to have duped over 33 men by pretending to be a lady.

The suspect, who opened up on his deeds after his arrest by operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), also stated that he used social media, particularly Instagram, to perpetrate the crime.

Metro gathered that the suspect 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, Lagos State last Thursday evening before arresting him.

The suspect reportedly celebrated his birthday at a club in Lekki area of the state where he allegedly spent a huge amount of money.

Falope, a 100 level part time student of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Ogba, Lagos, also disclosed that he had been in the business for more than two years.

Police sources told Metro that Falope’s activities on Instagram were placed under investigations when it received a complaint about an Instagram handle @blackberbiedoll, which was being used for criminal activities and later traced to him.

Apart from @blackberbiedoll, which the suspect prominently used for alleged fraudulent activities, he also had two other accounts, @froshwhite007 and @froshwhite, for the same purpose.

One of the complainants, simply identified as Bernard, stated that he got a friend request from @blackberbiedoll.

The complainant said: “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’ said 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,” he added.

He explained further that “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.

Another victim, who did not want his identity disclosed, said he paid N100,000 into the suspect’s account to support ‘her’ bogus fashion outfit.

Admitting the allegation, the suspect said that he had duped no fewer than 33 men by pretending to be a lady on Instagram, since he started the fraudulent act about two years ago.

“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 application on Google which transformed my voice into that of a lady whenever I am having conversation” the suspect said

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.

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.

The image maker in charge of the state police command, Dolapo Badmos confirmed the arrest of the suspect to Metro. She also stated that the suspect had been transferred to State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) for further investigations.