Online friendship that cost a Shimla woman Rs 30 lakh

Police said on Wednesday that the woman, who hailed from Shimla, had befriended a man on Facebook last year and was allegedly duped by him after he offered to send her a gift and settle in her home town for business.

A friendship on a social networking website cost a woman over Rs 30 lakh.

By the time police completed the investigation and filed an FIR on Tuesday, the woman had died in an accident. (Picture for representation)

Police said on Wednesday that the woman, who hailed from Shimla, had befriended a man on Facebook last year and was allegedly duped by him after he offered to send her a gift and settle in her home town for business.

However, by the time police completed the investigation and filed an FIR on Tuesday, the woman had died in an accident.

Police said the woman received a friend request on Facebook from a man sometime in August last year. He wrote to her saying that he wanted to ‘settle in Shimla and was trying to reach out to old friends’, police said.

A police officer privy to the investigation, said, “After two months of chatting on the social networking website, the man told her he was sending gold and a gift pack to her, which would arrive at Delhi International airport in a week’s time. He even offered to partner her in a business venture in Shimla,” the official said.

According to the complainant’s statement in the FIR, she received calls from people posing as officials of the airport authority, asking her to pay a ‘tax’ to claim the ‘courier’ that had arrived at the Delhi airport.

On October 5 last year, she deposited Rs 42,000 in a bank account provided by her Facebook friend and Rs 80,000 through a cheque in another bank account as ‘courier fees’, police said.

“Over the next two months, she was told by the fraudsters that her package at the airport contained 50,000 pounds (sterling), which were illegal and she would have to pay more tax, or face arrest under the Foreign Exchange Management Act,” the police officer said.

Fearing arrest, she transferred Rs 30 lakh in multiple transactions of varying amounts and even took a loan of Rs 12 lakh from her relatives and approached the police on November 30 last year after the man forced her to make more payments and said he was coming to India.

Inspector Satish Kumar said the woman had shifted to her daughter’s house in Chakkarpur, DLF Phase 4 after recording her statement.

Police said the role of foreign nationals was suspected based on the scanning of half a dozen Facebook accounts.

“Lately, there has been rise in incidents of fraudsters, primarily foreign nationals, duping people by creating a fake profile on social media for a ‘honey trap’,” the investigating officer said.

“She passed away in an accident sometime ago. Investigations in cyber crime cases are protracted, especially in cases that involve money trail, and it is unfortunate that the complainant passed away by the time an FIR was registered,” Kumar said