Woman cheated of lakhs by Instagram 'brother' in Delhi

Photo used for representational image

A woman was duped of over Rs 4 lakh by her contact on Instagram. The woman realised that she had been cheated only after she ended up paying him Rs 4.06 lakh in four separate instalments.

According to Delhi Police, the woman who resides in Pushp Vihar, New Delhi and worked as a beautician and makeup artist, was active on social media and in September she came in contact with a man by the name of Luccy Hairry on Instagram who introduced himself as a British national.

Slowly the man gained the trust of the victim and called himself her "brother". One day he told her that he had sent her a valuable gift parcel containing foreign currency.

After that, the complainant got calls from alleged customs officers and excise officers to deposit fees to get her parcel released.

Hence, turn by turn she was asked to deposit about Rs 25,000, Rs 91,500, Rs 2,01,500 and Rs 75,000 on pretext of customs duty, excise duty, foreign currency conversion charges and bribes.

When they demanded another Rs 3.75 lakh, the complainant had no money left and then realised that she had been cheated and filed a complaint at the Saket police station.

"During investigation, it was revealed that the alleged bank account in which the amount had been deposited is of Union Bank in Dimapur, Nagaland. The calling numbers were spoofed numbers. During verification from Dimapur police, the account address was found fake. Hence, it was a blind case. Thereafter we sent notices to Instagram to get details of the fake account. Banks were also asked to provide details," said Atul Thakur, DCP (South).

Technical details were analysed and suspected numbers were targeted with the help of technical analysis and the accused Amarjeet Yadav, a resident of Janakpuri, New Delhi and Nigerian national Benjomin Ekene were arrested.

On interrogation, the accused Amarjeet revealed that he was previously working as SIM card dealer, for the last 6 months during the lockdown he came in contact with the Nigerian national who told him to work with him to earn easy money. Amarjeet had to provide bank accounts on fake addresses which were used to deposit stolen money. Later, he used to pay Ekene in cash after ATM withdrawal and card swapping.

"One more foreign accused named Josef and an Indian named Prabhu are also involved in the crime and are being traced," the officer added.

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