The fraudsters are getting smarter by the day and making a very good use of all available resources and technology. They are like predators searching for their prey all day online. But the sad fact here is that despite knowing this reality many of us close our eyes to it and fall prey to these rogues. In one such case, the Fraudsters have duped two Goan women to the tune of Rs. 32 Lakhs by befriending them on the Facebook, the most powerful social media platform in the world. Read the full report here.
The story came to the light when the two victim ladies approached the Goa Police Cyber Cell after getting duped online by the rogues. According to the sources, the two local women have become the victim of siphoning off the funds through the cyberspace. The sources have also revealed that in the complaint to the cyber cell of Goa police a lady from Dharbandora made a claim to have been duped by the unknown person for Rs. 18 Lakhs whom she befriended on the Facebook. The name of the person (which surely not the real) is said to be Thierry Grey.
According to the victim, the accused ‘Grey’ had made the claim that he is a resident of the UK who sent her the friends request on the social networking site. The story goes like this, The victim lady made some confessions about her personal life in front of the ‘Grey’, In one of the chats she told him that, her marital relationship has been strained for the past 13 years and she is desirable to obtain a European Visa.
The accused Grey showed quick interest in helping the victim lady. According to the police sources, the suspected accused told the victim woman that he would be traveling to India to meet her and later he reportedly sent her the message saying that he has been detained at the Delhi Airport as his travel documents were not in order and requested her to deposit the money in the account of a ‘customs officer’.
According to the sources, the woman has been asked by accused to deposit the money on the various occasions and police said that she also received the call from a person called Sonia Sharma who told her that the immigration department had found the cheque of Rs. 8,50,000 in the possession of the suspect and she asked the unwary victim to deposit Rs. 2.75 lakhs to register the cheque at the airport which the victim lady promptly did. Following this, Sharma called the victim to convey that the cheque had been deposited in the ‘Reserve Bank of India’ and that she would receive a call from a banker. No such call came till date, said the sources.
In another case, a woman from Panaji had lodged the complaint with cyber crime cell of Goa Police stating that she had been duped for over 14 Lakhs rupees by a Facebook user who had befriended her on the social media website. She said that the person had claimed that he is a Spanish National. According to the second victim woman, during one of their chat, he promised to send her a parcel and a few days later she received the call from customs asking her to deposit the money in the various bank accounts to get the purported parcel delivered to her. Just like an earlier story, the woman obliged to it but did not receive any parcel but she received more calls to deposit the money in the banks.
According to the source in the crime branch, the cyber cell of crime branch has registered a FIR (First Information Report) in both the cases and investigations are in progress. Meanwhile, please take a look into the modus operandi of these criminals.
- By default these criminals use an internet as a platform to cheat the people and social media being one of the biggest platforms they especially target the woman by sending friends to request on social networking sites.
- Soon they start to chat with them and take the woman into the confidence. In the chat, they try to find out the weakness of a woman and target them accordingly.
- Once they win the trust of a victim, they play their cards by asking the victim to share their confidential information and accordingly lay their traps.
- They promise the victims of sending them expensive gifts from abroad or providing them a visa and subsequently request them to deposit money to purportedly clear checks at custom.
If you think this information helps you and it will also help the others, please do share it with your friends and near dear ones so that the fraudsters does not get successful in their mission of trapping another innocent person.
