Mumbai: Elderly woman duped of Rs 42 Lakh in scam by Facebook ’Friend’

Mumbai Mirror

Mumbai, 12 Apr 2017: A 72-year-old Vile Parle resident is the latest victim of online fraud, losing Rs 41.94 lakh between January and March this year. A suspected fraudster befriended the woman on Facebook and lured her with the promise of a cash gift of £2 million (around Rs 16 crore) during his ’visit’ to Mumbai in January.

 

For three months, the victim continued transferring money to three different accounts named by the fraudster. It was only on March 27, after the victim paid the final sum of Rs 3 lakh to his account, did she realise she was being duped. Reacting to the complaint, cyber police at BKC immediately sent a team to Gandhinagar locality in New Delhi and arrested two people — Shabuddin Shaikh (23) and Gulzar Shaikh (24) —who came to withdraw Rs 3 lakh from the account.

 

The duo was produced in the Esplanade Court on Monday and Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate R K Deshpande remanded them to police custody till April 15.

 

Police found the duo opened three bank accounts in the names of Saad Ahmed and Kamal Hasan, using fake documents. The victim got suspicious and filed a complaint when the fraudster stopped answering her calls. Police caught Shabuddin and Gulzar red-handed as they withdrew Rs 1.6 lakh and Rs 1.4 lakh with two bearer cheques from a bank’s branch in New Delhi. The victim lost her entire life’s savings in the fraud. In her complaint, she said, "I transferred money at least 12 times to three bank accounts between January and March. I got duped after I accepted a friendship request on the social network without realising the person who befriended me was part of the `Nigerian scam’. The fraudster posed as a UK businessman and offered Rs 16 crore as gift during his visit to India. I went on transferring money believing I was helping him clear the money which he planned to gift to me. He said he was stuck at customs and other agencies."

 

The accused, after befriending the victim, made calls to her and even exchanged emails. "In one mail the fraudster said he will visit India and wanted to meet her and her family members. He also said he wanted to gift her £2 million. The fraudster gained the victim’s trust with his sweet talk before calling her from an India-based mobile number, demanding money ostensibly to clear customs duty and make payments as per RBI guidelines to get the gift, which is in British pounds, to India," said investigators.

 

Befriending people, especially women, on Facebook, is the most recent modus operandi adopted by fraudsters. The fraudsters pose as businessmen from UK to gain trust before spinning their web and siphoning money, said investigators.

 

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber) Akhilesh Singh confirmed arrest of the men whose fake accounts were used to park the money. They were booked under IPC sections for impersonation, cheating and the IT Act. Cyber police are still getting details of the Nigerian fraudsters involved in the incident.