The Indian police have arrested an American woman identified as Chloe Mclaughlin for faking her own kidnapping in a plan to extort money from her parents.
Chloe Mclaughlin, 27, was arrested by the New Delhi District police Sunday, July 17 who found her living with an internet hook-up boyfriend, a Nigerian national identified as identified as Okoroafor Chibuike Okoro.
The police said they had unraveled the scheme after her mother contacted the United States embassy when she received a distressing call in which Mclaughlin reportedly said she was being assaulted and living in an unsafe environment, the Indian Express reports.
Embassy officials used information from an email she previously sent about renewing her passport to try and find her, which led them to the Radisson Blu Hotel.
Police raided the hotel only to discover that the woman had never been a guest there, she had simply used the hotel’s free WiFi, according to Amrutha Guguloth, Deputy Commissioner of Police in New Delhi.
“In order to ascertain the present whereabouts of the girl, assistance was sought from Yahoo.com for providing the IP address used by her for sending email to the American Citizens Services on July 9,” he said.
“Further, the Bureau of Immigration was requested to provide her immigration form to find her whereabouts.”
Police, working with the U.S. embassy then traced the young woman’s IP address from the video. They found she was staying with 31-year-old Okoroafor Chibuike who she had met online and with whom she had connected in early May over a mutual love of music.
When police attempted to arrest Okoro, McLaughlin reportedly confessed to having staged the kidnapping after running out of money.
They also found that the McLaughlin’s visa and Okoro’s passport had expired.
Both now face charges of overstaying in India without a valid passport and visa.
No other charges will be filed in India, police added.
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