Mumbai Crime: Social media 'friend' cheats woman of Rs 4 lakh

The arrested woman has admitted the bank account is hers

The Samta Nagar Cyber Cell police booked a 57-year-old trainer and a foreign national for allegedly cheating a 40-year-old IT professional of Rs 3.98 lakh. The police arrested the trainer, Anita Engineer, on March 5 and are looking for the other accused.

According to the police, an IT professional, Dominic Mason from the UK, befriended the victim on social media. After a few days he allegedly insisted she accept a MacBook as a gift. The police said later she received a call from someone posing as an officer of an international courier firm from the Delhi Airport, who asked her to transfer Rs 28,000 customs duty for the gift. The police said later Mason allegedly asked her to deposit R3.98 lakh in a bank account provided by him, on another pretext. She deposited this but when he asked for Rs 3.8 lakh more, she began to doubt him. Soon he stopped answering her calls. The victim then approached the Samta Nagar cyber police.

The police found the bank account where the complainant transferred the money was registered in the name of Engineer, a resident of Andheri West. The police said Engineer told them a man named Michel befriended her on social media and asked her to open an account for him as he was an NRI. She did so and couriered the passbook, cheque book and debit card to Michel. The police suspect Mason and Michel could be the same person.

"We found that the money transferred from the complainant's account into Engineer's account was later withdrawn. Engineer denies involvement but admitted the account was hers. She has been remanded in police custody. Further investigation is on," said a police officer.