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Rabale woman loses₹1 lakh after FB friend cheats her
A 26-year-old woman was cheated of ₹1.15 lakh after her Facebook friend claimed to have sent her gifts from United Kingdom. While she was cheated in September 2019,
A 26-year-old woman was cheated of ₹1.15 lakh after her Facebook friend claimed to have sent her gifts from United Kingdom. While she was cheated in September 2019, the Rabale police lodged a cheating case on Wednesday after the woman approached the Mumbai police cybercell.
She received a friend request from a woman named Jeniffer and she accepted it in August last year. Later, the person she was chatting with revealed that he is a surgeon named Mark Lucas and has been using his sister’s account.
‘Lucas’ and the complainant became friends and continued chatting for around a month and even spoke over phone.
“I tried to video call him but he said he was busy as he was a surgeon. He said he is a 34-year-old divorcee and has a four-year-old girl. He said he was only interested in being friends,” the woman said.
On August 30, Lucas told her he has sent her a gift and that she would receive a call from the courier service. Two days later, she got a call from a woman who told her to pay ₹35,000 for customs duty. When she asked Lucas to tell her what he has sent, he told her he has sent a laptop, diamond ring, clothes and some currency.
When the woman transferred the money she received a notification that ₹20,000 had been withdrawn from her account. She enquired with the ‘courier woman’ but was told it was a mistake. Claiming to refund the money, the accused transferred ₹1.15 lakh.
The woman alleged that the Rabale police were not registering the case, telling her that they cannot register a case against an unknown person. She approached other officers and only after approaching the cybercell of the Mumbai police that a case was registered.
“We have registered the complaint based on the complainant’s statement. We are investigating the case,” said Santosh Chavan, assistant inspector from Rabale police station.
