BHOPAL: A 23-year-old college student was allegedly befriended by an online fraudster, who pretended to be a girl based in the United Kingdom over Facebook, and was duped of Rs 2.12 lakh on the pretext of customs charges while pretending to be caught at the airport.
When the student's family members found out about the fraud, they reported the matter to the cyber-crime branch. Acting on the victim's complaint, the cyber-crime branch on Friday registered a case against unidentified accused and started investigations.
Investigating officer SI Devendra Sahu said that the complainant DD Ahirwar, 23, a resident of government quarters in Kotra in Kamla Nagar, is a college student. His elder brother is posted in a government department.
SI Sahu said that Ahirwar in his complaint stated that in November last year, he came in contact with a UK-based girl over Facebook. Both started chatting over Facebook messenger and exchanged phone numbers after which they started chatting over WhatsApp. After talking to him for around a week, the fraudster impersonating as the girl told him that she would come to Bhopal to meet him. A day or two later, the fraudster sent him messages that she came to India with expensive gifts for him which were caught by the customs officials. She asked him to send money in Indian currency. Later, the fraudsters posing as custom officials called him and demanded money saying that if he did not pay, he would be booked on charges of money laundering and others.
SI Sahu said that Ahirwar fell in the trap and transferred money into the bank accounts given by the fraudsters. Within two days, he transferred Rs 2.12 lakh into their accounts online in multiple transactions. The money was deposited in his account by his elder brother for his studies. When his family members came to know about the incident, they counselled him and he approached the cyber-crime branch to lodge a complaint. Police have registered a case against unidentified accused on the basis of their mobile numbers through which they contacted him and the bank accounts in which the money was transferred. Further investigations were on in the case.
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