Facebook friend promises Jamshedpur woman child, dupes her of Rs 2.28 lakh

In a bizarre trick, a Jamshedpur-based woman was duped of ₹2.28 lakh by her Facebook friend, ostensibly an American citizen. The woman was childless, and the ‘friend’ promised to give his daughter to her, said police here on Sunday. The money she gave was not for the child; it was given for other requests made by this ‘friend’. He broached the subject of cash after gaining her confidence.

The strange requests for money for this reason or that went on for some time, before the woman realised that she was being cheated. She finally went to the police when she got a request for the transfer of ₹5.78 lakh to a certain bank account.

“We have lodged an FIR as per the complaint filed by Snigdha Rani Roy, against an American citizen named Patrick Mark, a courier company, and four other persons,” said Ashok Kumar Singh, Golmuri police station in-charge.

As per the FIR, Patrick Mark befriended Snigdha Rani Roy, a resident of Birsanagar Zone No. 7 here, over Facebook. He posed as a divorcee with a four-year-old daughter and introduced himself as a marine engineer working with the US-based CL Logistics since 1998.

“He started chatting on Facebook and WhatsApp with me and said that his father was Indian and mother an American. He also said that he has been divorced by his wife and has been living with his four-year-old daughter. He promised to give his daughter to me, as I was childless even after 10 years of marriage, and I accepted the offer to adopt his daughter,” Roy wrote in her complaint.

According to Roy, this man Mark then told her that since his daughter would live in India with her, he would settle in India, too. “He said that he had sent some dollars to me so that he could build a house here when he permanently comes to India and gave me the numbers of a courier company – Tara Express Courier Delivery Services International Ltd,” her complaint said.

“Then a call from the Mumbai-based courier company came, asking me to send ₹68,000 for getting a parcel addressed to me released. When I pleaded my inability to send such a big amount, they asked for ₹30,000, and I transferred the amount on September 19 last year to one Kamalesh Nath’s SBI account in Bhopalganj as per the details given by the courier company,” she alleged.

The next day, another call came from the courier company, this time asking for ₹1.98 lakh for foreign currency conversion. “I refused, but Patrick called me up and said that he would return the money when he comes to India. I transferred the amount finally to the Bank of Baroda account of one Abel Asumi in Dimapur, Nagaland. A few days after this, a lady called me up, saying that another parcel has come for me with $35,000, for which I need to pay ₹5.78 lakh. Then, I realised that I have been cheated,” stated Roy in her complaint.