20-year-old woman takes ₹10 lakh pre-approved loan to pay online fraudsters, loses ₹3 lakh

Police identified the victim as Mansi Madhesiya, 20, who hails from Kushi Nagar in Uttar Pradesh and resides at a rented accommodation in Barola area in Sector 49, Noida

A 20-year-old woman was allegedly held hostage virtually by cyber frauds and duped of ₹3 lakh in Noida’s Sector 49 on Wednesday, police said on Friday, adding that the gang threatened the woman so much that the terrified woman took a pre-approved loan of ₹10 lakh to pay the gang.

As the victim had no money in her bank account to pay the fraudsters, she took a pre-approved loan of ₹10 lakh from a mobile banking app and transferred ₹3 lakh in three transactions. (Representative image)

Police identified the victim as Mansi Madhesiya, 20, who hails from Kushi Nagar in Uttar Pradesh and resides at a rented accommodation in Barola area in Sector 49, Noida.

“In her complaint to the police, she said that on Wednesday around 10.30am, she received a call from an unidentified mobile number. The caller introduced himself as an employee of a courier company based in Mumbai,” said Anuj Kumar, station house officer, Sector 49, adding that the caller told her that a parcel, containing illegal items, was sent in her name and because of its content, it was returned.

“She was told to get in touch with Maharashtra police,” Kumar said, adding that on the pretext of connecting her to a Maharashtra police officer, she was held hostage virtually and duped of ₹3 lakh, on the pretext of “settling the case”.

“On a complaint by the victim, a case under Section 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the IT Act was registered against unidentified suspects at Sector 49 police station on Thursday evening, and ₹1 lakh of the siphoned amount freezed successfully,”

“A team has been formed to identify the suspects, and further investigation is under way,” added Kumar.

He said public can complain about cyber frauds at the number, 1930, or register a complaint on the national cyber crime reporting portal (NCRP).