Three women lose Rs 60 lakh to online fraud in Thrissur

Three women lose Rs 60 lakh to online fraud in Thrissur

Thrissur: Three women, who were conned by an unknown person through Facebook, lost Rs 60 lakh to the cyber fraud.

The fraudster cheated the women by making them believe that costly gift items had been sent from Europe and customs duty needs to be paid to receive the same. One of them paid Rs 30 lakh by mortgaging her land and selling gold ornaments. The women have lodged a complaint with the city cyber cell.

The modus operandi

The fraudsters monitor the profile of women who are quite active on the Facebook for months. Subsequently a friend request is sent to them. By that time the fraudsters would have gathered considerable information about their life style, likes and dislikes.

Gradually they would establish a contact through chatting. Once they gain the confidence of the women, a request is made for the WhatsApp number. Now the friendship is given a personal touch through WhatsApp link.

The fraudsters often introduce themselves as doctors, businessmen, software company owners settled in Europe or America. They make their victims believe that costly gifts have been sent to them from Europe on special days like birthday.

Two three days later a call is made masquerading as customs official from Delhi. The 'customs official' will inform them that the parcel in their name has arrived and a small amount will have to be remitted as processing fee.

Once the victim pays the processing fee, the stage gets set for the big fraud.

The fraudsters make their victims believe that on scanning the parcel it was found that it contained gold ornaments, watch costing lakhs, iPhone, 50,000 British pounds. All these are worth crores of rupees hence a customs fee of Rs 30 lakh will have to be remitted to get the articles and foreign currency released.

The moment the victims remit the amount, they lose lakhs.

The comments posted here/below/in the given space are not on behalf of Onmanorama. The person posting the comment will be in sole ownership of its responsibility. According to the central government's IT rules, obscene or offensive statement made against a person, religion, community or nation is a punishable offense, and legal action would be taken against people who indulge in such activities.