A 21-year-old Indian associate of an Ivory Coast national, who was arrested last month for duping dozens of women after befriending them on social media, has been arrested, Uttar Pradesh police officials said on Thursday.

The accused has been arrested from Faridabad in Haryana by the Noida unit of the UP Cyber Crime department, the officials said.

"The accused, identified as Dheeraj Rathod, is a native of Haryana and provided bank account to Ivory Coast national Ndafirmi, 26, who transferred the fraudulently made money into these accounts," Noida Cyber police station in-charge Reeta Yadav said.

"Rathod worked for Ndafirmi on commission basis. Every time his bank account was used, Rathod got Rs 20,000 as commission. Investigation has revealed that his bank account was used to transfer the fraud money by the foreigner multiple times in the last two years," Yadav said.

Ndafirmi was arrested on May 9 from Delhi by the officials of the Cyber police station Noida Sector 36 over a complaint made in June last year. He had duped the woman of over Rs 28 lakh after befriending her on Instagram using a fake profile and identity, the officials said.

Ndafirmi, who has studied till Class 12, had come to India in 2019 and was part of a gang which has duped more than a dozen women in the last two years with the fraud amount going over Rs 2.50 crore, according to the officials.

The police have booked Rathod under Indian Penal Code sections 120 B (party to a criminal conspiracy), 389 (extortion), 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and under provisions of the Information Technology Act.

The police have urged people to be cautious in their social media activities in order to avoid being duped or harassed and asked them to report any cyber crime or online financial fraud?immediately at helpline number 1930.