A 33-year-old woman who was in search of a prospective partner on a matrimonial website lost Rs 8 lakh to a cyber fraudster who posed as a UK-settled Pune man, the police said.
The fraudster took money from the woman on the pretext of clearance charges for luggage, officials said.
The Maharashtra Police registered a case on Saturday based on a complaint from the woman who is studying at a college in Pimpri Chinchwad. According to the FIR filed at the Sangvi police station, the woman, who registered herself on a well-known matrimonial website, came across the profile of the UK-settled man around two months ago.
“The woman after frequent communication with the man decided to get married to him and subsequently exchanged personal information and details of each others’ families. On the first of May, he told her that he was going to Singapore for a meeting and would stop by Pune to visit her and her family. He told her that he had sent his luggage to her address for it to reach in advance. He also sent her the photo of the bag and a receipt from the courier company,” the woman said in the complaint.
The police said that subsequently, the complainant got a call seeking charges of around Rs 58,000 as customs duty on the luggage, and she was further asked to pay additional duty for the gold, foreign currency and high end cell phone in the bag.
“The ‘prospective groom’ told her that he was sending the valuables and cash for his younger sister who is suffering from cancer. He also asked more money for additional customs duty, Indian tax, currency conversion charges and the woman ended up paying Rs 7.98 lakh through multiple online transfers, the police said.
The complainant realised that she was being cheated when the man continued demanding more money in terms of various fees and other charges, and approached the police. The police registered a case under the Information Technology Act and Indian Penal Code sections pertaining to cheating and criminal breach of trust.
The investigators at Sangvi police station are scrutinising the bank accounts and other contact details used by the fraudsters.
An official with the Cyber Crime Cell said this incident is a case of ‘Advanced Fee Scam’ which is one of the most common cyber frauds. In such cases, the victims are made to pay a smaller amount of money under the pretext such as advanced fees, clearance charges, processing fees or initial investment etc by luring them with offers of gains of much higher value including contracts, valuables, gifts, large investments – but get nothing in return.
The police have appealed to the public to approach the nearest police station or Cyber Crime Cell of their jurisdiction if they come across such cases or fall prey to such frauds.
