The 38-year-old realised that she has been conned when she ended up paying the amount but did not receive any gift even after eight months of the scheduled receipt
A 38-year-old classical music teacher was in for a rude shock when she fell for a ‘gift’ con and ended up shelling out Rs 7.5 lakh in various ‘taxes’.
It all began last year when the Kandivli resident received a friendship request on Facebook from a man, reportedly based in UK. They started chatting and within two months the ‘friend’ expressed his desire to send her a Christmas gift since he had developed a fondness towards her.
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He also hinted that as his wife is suffering from cancer and will die soon, he would consider the victim as a prospective bride.
She was to receive the gift, which was dispatched on November 26 last year, on December 25. Through the waiting period, she got numerous calls from different people asking her to deposit some or the other amount in the name of taxes in different accounts held with various banks.
While some demanded Rs 1,95,000 as duty charges, some demanded RBI charges and this way she ended up paying Rs 7.5 lakh just to get hold of the gift, which was a bundle of 20,000 pounds (Rs 17,63,000). The amount was enough for her to shell out the money, because she thought that she would end up gaining more in the bargain.
When the gift did not arrive even till July this year, she visited the RBI to enquire about the progress. That was when she got the jolt when the officials informed her that such gift transactions are never done through the apex bank. A person is required to pay only the government tax to get such a gift.
She realised that she has been cheated and lodged a complaint with the Samta Nagar police station on July 12.
Police says
“We have registered a case against the unknown individual under IPC section 420 (Cheating) and also IT act 66(d) (Punishment for cheating by impersonation by using computer resource) and are investigating the case. We are also tracking the records of the mobile numbers, from where the victim received calls,” said Senior Police Inspector Dilip Yadav.
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