Hyderabad: The beauty pinging you on WhatsApp and Facebook may not be trying to steal your heart but your money. The friend requests on FB and chats can be the first step of a major loot. Romance scam, a fraud mainly pulled off by Nigerian scammers, are now more innovative than ever, cyber crime officials said. The foreign crooks are now taking the help of Indian women, mainly from New Delhi, to trap Hyderabadis through sweet talk.
Masking love the fraudsters build up trust and then ask for money. Fabricating stories they coax their victims into depositing lakhs in their accounts. In a recent case, a Tollywood production assistant's was duped by a Nigerian and a housewife from New Delhi. The modus operandi is to get in touch with the victim through Facebook and dupe him by pretending to fall in love.
“The fraudster using a fake FB profile pictures would pretend to be a woman from the UK or the US. The crook would tell the victim that ‘she’ has a lot of money and wants to invest in India. When talking on the phone with the victim the scammer's assistant, a woman, pretends to be the girl. She would also express her willingness to come to India and meet the victim. The loot begins when the scammer pretends that she got stuck in airport during customs check where money has to be paid. The fraudster would call the victim pretending to be a customs official and say that the woman was carrying a lot of foreign currency,” said cyber crime inspector Chand Pasha.
In a recent case, the woman, who had introduced herself as Felicia Isaac from United Kingdom, called the victim and said she was stopped at the Delhi airport. “She asked the victim to send Rs 25,000 to pay at the airport. After he sent the money, a man claiming to be a customs official called him and said that her luggage is held up and she has to pay another Rs 50,000. The victim paid it by transferring it to a bank account they gave him. Later, he got another call from the man saying that her bag contains UK currency, and Rs 1.2 lakh should be paid to release the woman. Getting suspicious, he filed a complaint with us,” said cyber crime ACP Raghuveer. Cops found the customs official and the person behind the Facebook profile was a Nigerian, and the woman, who talked on the phone, was a housewife from Munirka in New Delhi. They were arrested later.
