No fewer than 33 men have been duped by a 100-level part-time student of a journalism institute, The Punch reports.

The 22-year-old undergraduate, Falope Oluwole, who has been arrested by the Lagos State Police Command was alleged to have posted the photo of a United States female makeup artist, Shayla, on his Instagram page, through which he duped the unsuspecting men who asked for a relationship.

The suspect was arrested on Thursday at a club in Ikeja City Mall after weeks of monitoring by operatives of the Rapid Response Squad.

Reports say only recently Oluwole celebrated his birthday at an upscale nightclub in Lekki, Lagos, where he reportedly lavished over N500,000 on food and drinks.

Oluwole operated three accounts on Instagram, @blackberbiedoll, @froshwhite007 and @froshwhite to perpetuate the crime.

One of his victims, who identified himself only as Bernard, said he lost N1m to the suspect.

He 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 lied to me that her father was a Nigerian and her mum, a Kenyan. At a point, she lied that she was building a beauty outfit in  the Ikota Shopping Mall, VGC, and that she was in need of some money to complete the mall.

“I had to transfer N1m to her. Weeks later, I got suspicious of the account name, Oluwole Israel Oluwaseun Falope. I ran a search on Google and that was when I discovered it was a scam.”

Another victim, who did not want to be identified, said he paid N100,000 into the suspect’s account “to support her fashion outfit.”

In his confessional statement to the police, Oluwole said he had defrauded over 33 men in the space of two years.

He said, “When I started, much as I pretended to be a lady on the phone, some men didn’t believe me. I then downloaded an application on Google store, which transformed my voice into that of a lady whenever I had a conversation. I got several pictures of Shayla, a pretty US lady, on my profile. Since then, men  started disturbing me and calling to request a date.

“What I do is to assess people based on their appearance on Instagram. I add them and thereafter open up conversations with them before I bring up all kinds of stories to dupe them. At a point, I lied to most of them that I had an accident and I lost my ATM card. I told them that I needed some money. Some of them were generous enough to send money into my account.

“I even lied to them that I was putting up a boutique and saloon at Ikota, VGC and Lekki, and that I needed money.”

Investigations revealed that the owner of the pictures the suspect used, @Shayla, had complained to Instagram that some Nigerians were using her photos to scam unsuspecting members of the public.

The suspect also claimed to be a friend of Toke Makinwa, Tonto Dike, Don Jazzy, Peter Okoye, among other top celebrities.

Items recovered from the suspect included, one iPhone 6, one Samsung Galaxy A5, one Apple tablet, hand and neck chains, some cash and a handbag.

The Police Public Relations Officer, SP Dolapo Badmos, warned members of the public to be wary of those they interacted with on social media.

“The suspect has been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department for further investigations,” she added.