Lucknow: Insta 'friend' tricks and dupes woman entrepreneur of Rs 1.34 lakh

LUCKNOW: After tricking retired government officials and luring them on the pretext of becoming friends, fraudsters now duped a woman entrepreneur in her 30s from Jankipuram police station area.
The woman was defrauded of Rs 1.36 lakh by a miscreant who sent her a friend request on Instagram and trapped her .
Recently, the STF had arrested a Nigerian man who turned out to be a member of a gang holding expertise in online fraud, particularly duping older men by luring them into friendship by impersonating women.
The unsuspecting victim, identified as Rashmi (name changed), accepted the request which was sent by an Instagram account of Lewis Froster living in the United Kingdom.
"The miscreant talked to the victim for a few days and exchanged WhatsApp numbers. Our friendship blossomed. A few days later, he told me he had sent a parcel without my knowledge and I have to receive it because he had used his job licence and would not be able to work again until I received that parcel and he might lose his job, the woman told police in her FIR.
Then on August 11, 2022, I got a call from an unknown number and a woman introduced herself as an employee of the customs department of India. She told me that there was a parcel for me that came from the United Kingdom and I can receive it after paying the custom duty money which will be refunded. She messaged me a Canara Bank account number and told me to transfer the money for three different charges," she said.
She said that she transferred Rs 2000, then Rs 40,000 and again Rs 96,000 in the bank account she had been given. "This way I paid Rs 1.36 lakh, but neither did I get any parcel, nor a refund of this money. Then I filed a complaint on the online portal of cybercrime," she said.
DCP, North, Qasim Abidi said that an FIR has been registered and from the modus operandi it seemed to be the handiwork of the Nigerian gang.