Customs duty fraud: Mumbai woman duped of ₹16 lakh by prospective groom

The woman told the police that she came in contact with the accused in May 2016 on a matrimonial website

A graphic artist’s search of a suitable man on a matrimonial site turned out to be a costly affair. The 36-year-old woman from Kandivli lost Rs16 lakh in a few months after the ‘prospective groom’ claimed to have sent her an expensive gift and lured her into paying ‘custom duties’ to claim the gift — an old modus used in such cheating cases.

The 36-year-old woman fell to an old and commonly used modus operandi.

The woman told the police that she came in contact with the accused in May 2016 on a matrimonial website. The accused promised to marry her. Eventually, the accused told her that he had sent her a costly gift from abroad and the purportedly expensive gift was stuck owing to customs duties.

He told the 36-year-old artist that she can collect the gift after it was cleared by the customs but since the gift was expensive, she will have to pay some charges to accept the gift. The woman fell in the trap and transferred money multiple times from her account to the account provided by the accused.

The Kandivli police on Thursday registered a case of cheating under sections of Indian Penal Code along with other sections of the Information Technology Act.