Septuagenarian from Mumbai loses Rs 12.63 lakh to cyber fraudsters; two held

Representative Image. Pic/iStock

A 75-year-old woman from Mumbai was allegedly duped of Rs 12.63 lakh by a man who proposed to marry her after getting in touch with her on social media, police said on Saturday.

The Mumbai police arrested two men in their 20s from Noida, Uttar Pradesh in connection with the crime on June 21 and they were brought to the city on Friday, an official from Matunga police said.

One of the accused had allegedly sent the woman a friend request on social media in November last year by posing as a resident of Germany and subsequently won her confidence and proposed to her, the official said.

The accused informed the woman that he had sent her a parcel, which was held up by the customs department at the airport and she would have to pay Rs 3.85 lakh to get it released, he said.

The victim transferred the money to a bank account. Eight days later, the accused contacted her claiming that he had travelled from London and was at the Delhi airport, the official said.

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The man allegedly said that he had a lot of cash with him, because of which the customs had detained him and she needed to pay Rs 8.78 lakh to get him released, he said.

The woman then transferred the sum to different bank accounts provided by the accused, the official said.

The woman soon realised that she had been duped and lodged a complaint with the police, who nabbed the accused based on technical inputs, he said.

The police have recovered mobile phones, debit cards of different banks, cheque books and other materials from the arrested accused, the official said.

A case under section 420 (cheating) and relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act has been registered in this regard, he added. (PTI)