Mumbai: Fraudster dupes widow of Rs 27 lakh , another assures recovery & cons her of Rs 1 lakh more

MUMBAI: A 63-year old widow was duped of Rs 28.17 lakh by a cyber fraudster who impersonated an insurance company representative and misled her by telling that her late husband's insurance policies had matured and she needs to pay a certain amount to receive monthly returns.
When she realised that she had been duped of Rs 27.33 lakh by one person, another fraudster approached her and duped her of another 84,000 by promising her to help recover part of what she had already lost.

Vikhroli police on Tuesday registered an offence of cheating and forgery against three members of a gang - Deepika Sharma, Radhika Sharma and Rakesh Kumar. The cyber police are carrying out a parallel investigation into the case as they suspect the gang has duped several others in the city and elsewhere too.
The widow, a Mulund resident, has stated that her husband died in 2011. In 2018, accused Deepika, who claimed to be from Delhi, informed the widow that her husband's policies and bonds had matured and she needed to pay tax after which she would get monthly returns.
The widow paid Rs 25,000 after which Deepika called to say she would get Rs 8 lakh if she paid a sum of Rs 75,000 more. "Deepika continued to ask for more sums of money, promising a higher maturity amount and subsequently extracted another Rs 26.33 lakh," the widow told police.
And when the widow's son learnt about this, Deepika then claimed that his mother's policy maturity amount had soared to Rs 45 lakh but said she could not entertain him as the policies were in the mother's name. Later, her cellphone was disconnected.
In April, the widow got a call from Rakesh Kumar who claimed he was an advocate from Delhi and said he had learnt she was a victim of the fraud. "Kumar told her that as an advocate he has recovered several lakhs for several victims of fraud. He told her he would charge 10% of the amount he would help her recover. The widow believed him and gave all details he sought.
Within a month, Kumar sent her a message showing pictures of a demand draft for Rs 8.40 lakh, claiming he had recovered it from the fraudster and asked the widow to pay 84,000," said an officer.
The widow transferred the money as Kumar said that unless she paid up, he would not release the demand draft. After this, Kumar stopped taking the widow's calls.
The police said that the ordeal of the widow continued further when a woman identified as Radhika Sharma called up, claiming to be an officer from Integrated Grievance Management Cell and said her final payment of Rs 72 lakh of insurance was ready and asked her to pay Rs 6 lakh tax.
That is when the widow and her son approached the police and lodged a complaint about some fraudsters who had duped her of over Rs 28 lakh.