Chandigarh woman loses ₹3.4 lakh to man she befriended online
On March 14, the woman received a call from customs officials in Delhi who informed that she needed to pay ₹50,000 fee for a parcel sent by her friend; as her friend assured to pay her back on arriving in India, she made the payment
The Chandigarh Police have launched a hunt to nab a man who duped a city-based woman of ₹3.4 lakh after befriending her online.
The complainant, Gurdeep Kaur, told the police that she had been interacting with one Dave through Instagram for the past two months.
Dave, who claimed that he lived abroad, told her that he will visit India on April 18 and send a parcel before his visit. She said she had asked him to bring the parcel himself as he was coming to India anyway, but he claimed that he will be travelling via sea and won’t be able to carry much weight.
On March 14, she received a call from customs officials in Delhi who informed that she needed to pay ₹50,000 fee for the parcel. As Dave assured to pay her back on arriving in India, she made the payment. Later, she got another call that the parcel contained illegal articles, including gold jewellery and foreign currency notes, and that she needed to pay another ₹1.88 lakh to avoid legal trouble.
Two days later, she got another demand for ₹1 lakh as stamp duty. Kaur said she paid the entire fee after securing a loan from a private bank. But she never received the parcel. On realising that she had been duped, she informed the cyber cell of Chandigarh Police that registered a case, and launched a probe to trace and arrest the accused.