Lured by ‘Gifts’ Private company staff cheated of Rs 3.53 lakh through Facebook
Udupi: A private company staff lost Rs 3.53 lakh, after a woman cheated him through Facebook promising him of a expensive birthday gift from UK.
David Paul Kumar resident of Padubidri who is working in Koland, Mulki, filed a complaint in the CEN police station stating that he realised that he had been cheated by the woman through Facebook who demanded money to release an expensive gift which he had received from the UK.
On August 24, the victim accepted a friend request from a woman called John Sherly Mackwel on Facebook. Both started chatting, and after two days the woman told him that she would give him an expensive gift for his birthday. A day later he was contacted by a woman who introduced herself as the staff of Delhi Airport. She said that the consignment had arrived, but the victim would have to pay the shipping charges of around Rs 58, 000.
After the victim transferred the money to a bank account provided by the company, the next day he was contacted by a man who introduced himself as an income tax official and asked to pay Rs 2.95 lakhs as tax for the gift which he had transferred through the bank.
The victim then got suspicious and soon realised that he had been cheated as the Facebook profile of his friend became unresponsive, and the phone numbers of the contact persons also were non-functional.
A cheating case has been registered in the CEN police station, and the police are scanning the phone numbers and trying to get the IP address from which the Facebook profile was being operated.