Honeytrapped Mumbai man loses almost Rs 32 lakh to Facebook friend

When the victim’s father went to the bank, he was shocked to find lakhs had been transferred from his account. Representation pic

A Mumbai man lost over Rs 24 lakh when he was honeytrapped over Facebook. The Central region cyber police recently arrested a man named Sayyad Saif Ahmed, 33, from Jharkhand, for allegedly duping him. Interestingly, Ahmed has confessed to the police that he had cheated the victim in the same manner in 2021 to the tune of nearly Rs 8 lakh! So in all the victim was cheated of nearly Rs 32 lakh by him.

Ahmed was brought to Mumbai on Thursday. The police said he created a Facebook account in the name Sana Khan, befriended the victim and duped him into paying him over a false promise of marriage. In 2021, the victim had lost Rs 7-R8 lakh after another ‘woman' called Sofia befriended him on FB. However, after a complaint was lodged with the local police station, the matter stopped there. The police could not track him then.

Also read: Men borrow retired BEST employee's phone to play games, dupe him of Rs 22.34L

‘He wanted a bride'

In January, the 31-year-old victim, a resident of Parel, received a Facebook request from Sana Khan. He was employed with a private firm and looking for a bride, but couldn't get one and was upset, said the police. Ahmed lured the victim into a trap with sweet talk and began to demand money, sometimes on the pretext of marriage, or in the name of mother's illness, even in the name of buying beauty products. Whenever the victim asked for more of her pictures, ‘Sana' would send pictures of body parts telling him "we are anyways getting married, then you will be able to see me". This is what the victim has said in his statement to the police.

Also spent father's money

The victim not only shelled out lakhs of rupees from his bank account, but also from his father's account. In three months, he ended up transferring Rs 24.67 lakh into multiple accounts as asked by ‘Sana'. In the last week of March, when his father went to the bank, he was shocked to find lakhs of rupees had been transferred from his account without his knowledge.

He immediately lodged a complaint with the cyber police who froze the bank accounts. The police suspected his son, but the victim denied it. But when the police took him into confidence he confessed that he had transferred the money, said an officer. After going through the call data records and the bank details, the central cyber police zeroed in on Ahmed who was picked up from Jamshedpur in Jharkhand. He was produced before the court on Thursday which remanded him in five days' police custody.

Ahmed, a BCom graduate, allegedly learnt how to go about the fraud from his friend and spent most of the money in online betting and rummy. "Strangely, the victim still thinks that Sana is a real woman and will marry him soon," said a police officer. During investigation, the accused has confessed to duping the victim with the same modus operandi in 2021. "He said that then he befriended the victim posing as Sofia on Facebook. After a case was registered, he started an account in the name of Sana Khan and sent a friend request to the victim," said Rajesh Nagawade, senior inspector, Central Region cyber police station.