'Gift' turns costly for senior citizen duped of Rs 17L
After about a week, the accused told the victim he was sending her a surprise gift that she would have to pick up from the airport or coordinate with customs officials
The MHB police in Borivali are in search of a man who duped a 66-year-old woman to the tune of Rs 17 lakh after befriending her on Facebook.
According to the police, the accused posed as a foreigner, befriended the victim on Facebook and interacted with her online for a few days. After about a week, the accused told the victim he was sending her a surprise gift that she would have to pick up from the airport or coordinate with customs officials. After a few days, she received a call from a man identifying himself as a customs officer from Mumbai airport. Under the pretext of clearing the parcel, the caller asked her to pay Rs 5 lakh as customs fee.
"Initially the customs officer told her the parcel contains foreign currency hence the woman will have to pay the fees. Later the victim got a call saying she will have to pay more and under various kinds of fees the victim was asked to transfer money to different bank accounts," said a police officer from MHB police station.
"The victim paid around Rs 17 lakh in 10 transactions within a span of 20 days. When she did not receive any parcel, she got suspicious and approached us. We then registered a case and started the investigation. It seems there were at least three people involved in this," added the officer.
A case of cheating and criminal breach of trust has been registered under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act in MHB police station.