A 30-year-old woman became the latest target of yet another cyber fraud after she was duped of Rs. 2.97 lakh by an unknown Facebook (FB) “friend”. In her complaint to the police, the homemaker (name withheld) has stated that she came into contact with a woman who identified herself as UK resident- Seina Galay, through FB in March, this year.
Soon the two exchanged mobile numbers and frequently chatted on instant messaging apps. During one such conversation, the woman revealed that she was childless despite medical treatment. Claiming to be a doctor, Seina assured to send medicines which would help her conceive. A few days later, a woman posing as a custom officer from the New Delhi airport, called up the complainant informing about the arrival of her parcel but asked her to pay duty to obtain it.
After consultations with her FB friend who claimed that the medicines were very expensive and needed to be collected, the complainant ended up paying up a total of Rs. 2.97 lakh through multiple transfers in different bank accounts as instructed by the caller. However, when the demands went on increasing and the parcel remained elusive, the woman tried to contact Seina and other callers, but by then all of them had become not-reachable.
Realizing she was duped, the woman registered a complaint with the local police station attached to the Mira Bhayandar- Vasai Virar (MBVV) police commissionerate. Based on the complaint, the police registered an offence under sections 420 of the IPC and section 66 (d) of the Information Technology Act. Further investigations were underway.
The police appealed people not to trust online friend requests from strangers blindly and refrain from conducting any type of financial transactions.
