A 63-year-old retired man has lost Rs 70 lakh to cyber criminals in Whitefield CEN police limits in the city. The victim lost all his savings and retirement funds after accepting a friend request from an unidentified woman. The accused promised the victim that she would send him gifts worth Rs 25 crore and made him pay. The victim accepted the friend request on October 1 and he lost his money in the next 25 days.
The victim is a resident of I Phase, Chandra Layout. The woman identified herself as Mariya Leonasmik and started chatting with him from October 1. On October 8, she sent a message stating that she would send him some expensive gifts. The next day, she messaged the victim that the gifts had been sent. On October 11, another fraudster claiming to be a customs official called the victim.
He then kept getting calls stating that there is a courier to him containing a few lakh dollars. In all, the victim paid Rs 70 lakh to the accused for the expensive gifts he never received. The accused made him pay customs duty, currency conversion charges and taxes for the gifts.
The accused also sent an e-mail bearing the seal of the Reserve Bank of India asking him to pay certain charges for currency conversion. A case of cheating (Indian Penal Code 420) along with the Information Technology Act of 2000 has been registered.
