Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SB)

Mangaluru, May 10: A woman in the city lost Rs 4.34 lac after a brief Facebook friendship with an unidentified lady.

As per details, the victim received a Facebook friend request from a lady identified as Sr Mary with a profile picture of a group of nuns. Even though the victim did not know the lady, she accepted the request and began chatting with her. After accepting the request, the lady introduced herself as a religious nun, resident of the United Kingdom. They chatted regularly after that. The friend had frequently sent Bible quotes and other religious prayers and earned the trust of the victim.

In April, the lady living abroad wished to send a gift and phoned her Facebook friend here. The woman refused the gift but the fraudster insisted that she should accept it.

The victim received a WhatsApp text from another man who introduced himself as a customs official from New Delhi in April second week. He asked her to pay a custom aviation fee on the consignment sent by the nun. The lady transferred an amount Rs 28,000 to the account of Anand Sharma as a processing fee. The bank account is held in SBI, Kakrola Mor branch located in Delhi area. The victim sent the receipt of the transaction to the lady and the lady appreciated the victim’s trust and blessed her by sending some Bible quotes and prayers.

Within two days, the victim received a consignment and she opened it out of curiosity. But when she opened the consignment she got a letter stating that the lady wanted to give another Rs 15 lac. Immediately, the victim sent a text to lady about the consignment which she received. The lady confirmed the letter and the matter of Rs 15 lac. But she demanded an amount of Rs 4.55 lac as a fund processing fee for claiming Rs 15 lac. To convince the victim, the self-proclaimed nun also sent a slip issued on May 4, from the office of Foreigners’ Service Office, New Delhi. Later, the victim deposited the said amount to Anand Sharma’s account in four instalments within a gap of two days. After sending all transaction details, the lady demanded more amount mentioning the legal issues for transfer the huge amount. She also sent a new account number opened in the name of Prithu Yadav, Delhi for further transactions. After the victim ended up paying Rs 4.34 lac in all, she got suspicious about the lady and called a media house in the city and narrated her story. The media house immediately directed her to contact cybercrime police.

The cybercrime police have registered a first information report and begun investigating the case.