A woman was cheated of her savings after a man befriended her online and offered her a ‘gift’ of over £44,000. In her complaint to the police, Mary Jayanthi, 30, a resident of Vivek Nagar, said that in October 2018, a man by the name of Michael had contacted her on Facebook and referenced a common friend. He sent her a friend request, which she accepted.
Michael claimed that he lived in the U.K., and the two soon struck an online friendship. He dropped hints of his supposedly lavish lifestyle. In December, he informed her that he had sent her a gift. Ms. Jayanthi was reluctant to accept it, but he convinced her to accept it, said the police.
In January this year, she received a call from a woman, identifying herself as Tanya Grover, an executive of an international courier agency based in Bengaluru. “Tanya informed Ms. Jayanthi that a parcel containing £44,000 has been sent by Michael to her address, and she needed to pay a fee of ₹28,500 for the package to be processed,” said the police.
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Ms. Jayanthi agreed and wired the money to Tanya’s account. However, a few days later, she received another call from the agency asking for more money to be transferred. In this manner, the victim ended up spending ₹3.4 lakh for various ‘fees’.
After she went through her savings, she borrowed money from friends and relatives promising to pay them back. However, after waiting for several days and with no word from the company, Ms. Jayanthi tried to get in touch with Michael only to find his Facebook account deleted and his phone unreachable.
The Ashok Nagar police have taken up a case of cheating and booked the accused under various sections of the IT Act, 2000. “We are trying to track down Tanya through the bank account details she shared,” said a police officer.
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