Woman duped of Rs 8 lakh for non-existent gift from FB friend
Think twice before extending a helping hand to any stranger-turned-friend on social media platforms.
A 34-year-old home-maker from Mira Road learnt it the hard way after she was duped of Rs 8.61 lakh by a person she met on popular social networking site Facebook.
According to the police, the woman from Mira Road (name withheld to protect her identity), in her complaint registered with the police, has stated that she came into contact with a man who was identified himself as Solomon Jack, a Scotland (UK) resident, through Facebook in May.
Soon the two exchanged mobile numbers and frequently chatted on instant messaging applications, mainly WhatsApp.
Claiming to be the campaign manager of a reputed automobile company, Jack expressed his desire to send some expensive gifts to the complainant, this despite her reluctance. In the second week of June, a woman, posing as a custom officer from the Mumbai airport, called up the complainant informing about the arrival of her parcel but asked her to pay duty to obtain it. After consultations with her Facebook friend who claimed the gifts were very expensive and needed to be collected, the complainant paid Rs 8.20 lakh, through multiple transfers to various bank accounts.
Later, when the woman who posed as a custom officer called again and demanded another Rs 3.92 lakh, the woman expressed her inability. Last week, she received a call, this time from Jack who claimed that he had arrived in New Delhi but needed money as his bags were confiscated by authorities. The woman once again deposited Rs 41,000, but grew suspicious when Jack demanded more money and registered a complaint with the local police station on Saturday.
“While efforts were on to trace bank accounts details in which the money had been deposited, we have registered a case under Section 420 (cheating) of the IPC against the fraudsters,” said an investigating officer who has appealed people not to trust online friend requests from strangers blindly.