A 31-year-old woman, who resides in Mahim, was allegedly defrauded of Rs 24 lakh by a London-based friend on Instagram. The police have begun investigating the matter on the basis of the bank transaction.
The accused gained the trust of the woman by pretending to be a senior executive in the Swiss-Italian cruise company MSC Cruises and befriended her.
The complainant woman works as an accountant in a private company.
In February, she received a friend request on Instagram by a man named Torres Neil. Neil said he works for MSC Cruises and lives in London.
The two were talking regularly on Instagram and WhatsApp. After a month of chatting, Neil said he got a big promotion. He said he was sending a special gift for her. He told her that he had sent a gift parcel that also contained 3,00,000 GBP (British pound sterling equivalent to Rs 3.33 crore) and asked her to just pay the clearing fee to get the parcel delivered.
Later, on March 28, the woman received a call from an officer of the Delhi Customs Department. It was said that a tax of 41,700 will have to be paid to release the parcel in their name.
As she paid the amount, a fake customs officer told her that she would have to pay other charges as the parcel contained a large amount of foreign currency. After she cleared this payment, he forced her to pay for a courier receipt, monetary certificate, Treasury International Code, tax clearance charges, customs declaration and ownership certificate etc.
Between March 28 and June 14, the woman was asked to pay Rs 24.07 lakhs. She realized the fraud after another 2 lakh rupees were demanded from her. After discussing with some friends, she realized that the friends in London were also among the cheaters. After that, she immediately went to the cyber police and filed a complaint.
The police registered a case for cheating, impersonation and cyber fraud under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act. The police suspect the involvement of the Nigerian gang in this scam. Police said that this is an old method of fraud. They are now trying to trace the accused by analysing the details of the phone numbers, bank accounts, and email addresses used in the crime.