Nagpur: A 66-year-old man, who retired from a private company, was cheated to the tune of Rs9.85 lakh by a London-based woman chat friend, who had introduced herself as Leeda Thompson. The woman had also trapped the victim by assuring to return one and a half times of the borrowed money.
The senior citizen, who is now in a state of shock, was cheated in October last year but Bajaj Nagar police registered the offence on Sunday after conducting the preliminary inquiry.
The elderly man is learnt to have accepted the woman’s friend request and started chatting. She had promised to come to Nagpur to meet him. In October last year, the trickster called the man seeking Rs55,000 to urgently clear ‘custom dues’.
After getting Rs55,000 transferred to her account, the woman requested for another Rs2.9 lakh claiming the amount would be required to clear ‘legal dues’. She later sought another Rs six lakh from the victim promising to return one-and-half times more that what was lent to her.
After the money was transferred, the senior citizen was left stunned when the woman stopped communicating with him.
An offence of cheating was registered at Ranapratap Nagar police station following his complaint. Police said the details of the mobile phone calls are now being sought from the service provider. “A letter has also been sent to the bank to ascertain the branch where the money was transferred,” said an officer.