A 31-year-old man from Coimbatore recently received a message from a Facebook friend who said that she will be sending him a gift in view of Easter. The friend, who identified herself on the social media platform as a nun from Italy, also sent him a receipt stating that the gift was couriered.
A few days later, the youth received a call from a person who introduced himself as a customs official working at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi. The person told the youth that the gift addressed to him had arrived at the airport and he had to pay a customs clearance charge of ₹22,500 as the package contained 50,000 USD. The youth transferred the money to the account mentioned by the caller for which a receipt in the name of customs with a seal was issued. The youth was later asked to pay ₹ 99,000 as clearance charge to receive the foreign currency. He paid the amount.
The youth became suspicious when he was further asked to pay ₹ 6 lakh as GST. By the time he realised the fraud, a total of ₹ 1,21,500 was lost. He approached the cyber crime station of Coimbatore city police, which had already received similar complaints from different people.
According to the officials at the cyber crime station, fraudsters cheated another person from the city of ₹ 14 lakh using the same modus operandi.
“It all starts with a friend request on Facebook or other social media platforms. If the request is accepted, the fraudsters study the profile of the person and begin to chat. The gift offer is made after gaining the confidence of the person,” said H. Muthu, Sub-Inspector with the cyber crime station.
In some cases, the person who establishes contact on social media poses as if he or she is coming to India to deliver the gift. Later, the person informs the victim that he or she got trapped with the customs at the airport and requests to pay money to get released.
Cyber crime station Inspector M. Dhandapani said social media users need to be very careful to identify the modus operandi and not fall for it.
The website www.cybercrime.gov.in or 1930 toll free number can be used to report cyber financial fraud and freeze fraudulent transactions.
