The person demanded money from the woman, a Walkeshwar resident, on the pretext of sending cash and expensive gifts from the UK
This picture has been used for representational purposes
A 53-year-old woman has been allegedly duped of Rs 12.71 lakh by an unknown person she befriended on Facebook. According to the Indian Express, the person demanded money from the woman, a Walkeshwar resident, on the pretext of sending cash and expensive gifts from the UK.
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As per the complaint filed by the woman in Gamdevi police station, she received a friend request on the social networking site from a person named Kelwyn Megan in May. They began chatting and also exchanged phone numbers. A police officer was quoted by the newspaper as saying that the man wore a uniform in his profile picture, which made the woman assume that he was a pilot.
“They also shared photos of themselves, in which Megan only shared pictures of his uniform,” the officer was quoted as saying. The woman also told police that Megan was in love with her and had plans to marry her. She further told police that he said that he had sent her a gift on her birthday on June 1 as he was not able to meet her.
On June 1, she received a call from a woman, who identified herself as Jayanti Verma and claimed to have been working for Delhi Airport. She told the woman that there is a gift in her name from Kelwyn Megan and had asked her to pay Rs 37,850 as a processing fee.
Even as she transferred the amount, Verma reportedly asked her to pay some amount of fine on different occasions that amounted up to Rs 12.71 lakh. As the gift contained cash, the woman was threatened that she would be arrested, the police officer added.
On June 11, when Verma asked the woman to pay another fine, she felt something is amiss and approached the police. After filing the complaint, the police conducted a preliminary inquiry and registered a case of cheating and impersonation.
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