Byculla woman falls prey to cyber crooks through Facebook

A 50-year-old woman from Mazgaon was recently exposed to the ugly side of social media, when a man, along with two women, duped her of Rs25,000 on the pretext of marrying her.

The Byculla police are on the lookout for the three accused identified as Daniel Williams, Mariana and Sunita Devi.

A police officer said, “The victim has an account on Facebook. Recently, when she was going through her profile, she came across a friend request from the man, who identified himself as Daniel Williams. The unsuspecting victim accepted it and soon they began chatting.”

The officer added that soon Williams proposed to her and she accepted. “He also told her that he would be sending her expensive gifts from London. A few days later, the victim received a call from one Mariana, who told her that her parcel has been dispatched from London. Later, one Sunita Devi called her and said her parcel has arrived in the city and that she would have to deposit Rs25,000 to get it released,” the officer said.

Devi gave the victim an account number in which the money had to be deposited. “When the victim called Devi back, the number turned out to be out of service. Also, Williams stopped responding to her chats on Facebook.

Realising that she had been duped, she lodged a police complaint on November 5,” said the officer.

The police have registered a case under sections 420 (cheating) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code and are investigating.