Mumbai: A 44-year-old interior designer from Girgaum, South Mumbai was cheated to the tune of ₹6.40 lakh by a fraud who posed as an eye specialist from Finland.
According to the DB Marg police, the woman said in her statement that she was earlier married and has a 4-year-old son from the first marriage. However, after disputes with her husband, they decided to get separated and their divorce petition was pending before the family court.
“In the meanwhile, she uploaded her profile on one of the matrimonial sites to get married again. One Dr Amit Sagare, who posed as an eye specialist from Finland, saw her profile online and approached her in the first week of September. He later told her that he liked her profile and he was originally from Pune and wanted to marry her. He used to make WhatsApp calls and they started speaking regularly. He told her he will soon come to India and even sent a photograph of his flight ticket to her,” said a police officer from DB Marg police station.
The police officer said the ticket was for October 5. Early morning on October 6, the complainant got a call from a woman, who identified herself as Sonia Mathur, an officer from the Customs department at the Mumbai airport.
“The woman told her that the doctor was caught at the airport as he tried to evade tax on 80,000 Euro ( ₹6382428) that he had brought with him. The caller also informed the complainant that he can be released only if he pays the taxes and penalties. At the same time, the doctor also messaged her to arrange an amount of ₹45,000, which she paid. Later, Mathur told her that she will also have to pay ₹1.75 lakh as money laundering charges, which she transferred to one of the bank accounts given by the frauds,” said the police officer.
{{/usCountry}}“The woman told her that the doctor was caught at the airport as he tried to evade tax on 80,000 Euro ( ₹6382428) that he had brought with him. The caller also informed the complainant that he can be released only if he pays the taxes and penalties. At the same time, the doctor also messaged her to arrange an amount of ₹45,000, which she paid. Later, Mathur told her that she will also have to pay ₹1.75 lakh as money laundering charges, which she transferred to one of the bank accounts given by the frauds,” said the police officer.
{{/usCountry}}Later Mathur took ₹25,000 from her for police clearance and ₹3.95 lakh as GST.
“The complainant suspected foul play, when on October 8, the frauds again called her and demanded more money - an amount of ₹2.5 lakh from her for clearing the gold ornaments that Dr Sagare had on him. She then visited the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport only to be told by the security officers that she was cheated,” the police officer added.
The woman, thereafter, approached the police and complained. “We have registered an offence and are checking the bank accounts used by the accused to get a clue about them. We are also trying to get the details of the SIM cards used by the frauds to communicate with the woman,” said the police officer.
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