A resident of Cuttack city was duped of over Rs 20 lakh by cyber fraudsters following his friendship with an overseas woman through Facebook.
The incident came to the fore when the victim, a former Government employee, lodged a complaint in this connection with the Cyber police in Cuttack recently.
As per the complaint, one Leona Jimmy from Manchester in the United Kingdom had sent a friendship request to the victim through Facebook in 2018. The woman chatted with the complainant soon after acceptance of her request. She had then identified herself as a gold merchant.
Six months later, the woman contacted the complainant and informed him that she was facing some issues relating to customs duty upon her arrival at the New Delhi airport. She urged the complainant to provide her Rs 89,000 to clear her custom duty dues. She told the complainant that she was in possession of 40,000 in British currency.
The woman later introduced one John Martin from the UK and one Usha Khanna from India to the complainant. Khanna had identified herself as a senior Reserve Bank of India (RBI) official.
The complainant had transferred Rs 20.61 lakh to the British woman from several bank accounts in between 2018 and 2022. He came to know about the cyber fraud when the woman sought more money some days ago.
“The fraudster has taken at least Rs 20 lakh from his account. When the fraudster again asked for Rs 57,000 from him, he got suspicious and reported to the police. We have registered a case in this connection under several sections of the IPC,” said Cuttack Additional DCP Anil Mishra.