Daijiworld Media Network - Puttur (SP)

Puttur, Jul 12: Police officials have advised the people to be wary of friendship requests in social websites identifying themselves as foreign national. They have pointed towards a number of cases where the friends later claim to have sent costly gifts to them and requesting them to meet import duty and other charges on the items stranded with the customs officials.

In one such instance, on July 1, a person had sought Facebook friendship with a person from Uppinangady on July 1, claiming him to be a London-based neurosurgeon. He had claimed that his wife had died when delivering his child and that he was searching for a beautiful Indian lady who can fondly take care of his children and be a good wife to him. He promised to send a huge gift if such a girl is introduced by the man. After he was promised help, he sought the house address of the man here, promising to send a small token gift initially.

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On July 5, the man contacted him on Facebook and said that the gift sent by him has reached India but the customs officials are demanding Rs 20,000 for clearing the same. He said that immediately after this amount is paid, the gift would reach his home. He provided a bank account number, saying that it belongs to the clearance agency, to which the above amount has to be sent.

From the beginning he was aware that this was the handiwork a racket of fraudsters. He had informed the police in advance. Even though the officials tried their best to find the person, they could realise that the fake neurosurgeon is a person from Delhi. But his address could not be detected. The police have also found that this is a racket of fraudsters involved with swindling money of others running into crores or rupees. They enter the social websites through some app, create accounts in the names of innocent people and then make money without getting trapped by the law. The police have advised people to be very careful.