65-year-old Mumbai woman on dating app falls for Rs 1.3 crore con

MUMBAI: A 65-year-old woman from south Mumbai was conned of Rs 1.3 crore by a fraudster on a dating app, posing as an American engineer. Police said she fell for the con after receiving calls from "representatives" of various financial bodies such as Reserve Bank of India (RBI), National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), and International Monetary Fund (IMF), who turned out to be fake callers.
The complainant is a 65-year-old homemaker. In April 2023, while using a dating app, 'International Cupid', she met a man named Paul Rutherford. He told her that he was an American civil engineer employed in the Philippines. After befriending her, Rutherford claimed there was an accident on his construction site in the Philippines and he needed money to avoid arrest and deportation to the US. Between April and June 2023, she sent him money in the form of bitcoins.
Rutherford promised to repay the amount. He told her he had sent a parcel containing 2 million USD through courier. In June 2023, she got a call from one Priya Sharma claiming to be a Delhi airport official and was told that her parcel had been confiscated by Airport Customs. Over several months, she paid various sums of money, as instructed by Sharma, towards govt charges to get the parcel released.
In Jan 2024, she was contacted by a man claiming to be an employee of Bank of America, New Delhi. He told her that the 2 million USD from the parcel had been transferred to Bank of America. He sent her an ATM card with her name on it. It turned out to be a fake card.
Further, she received calls from two women posing as officials of RBI and IMF. They sent her a letter which had RBI and Ministry of Home Affairs written on the letterhead. She was told that the American dollars would be converted into Indian currency and she would receive Rs 17 crore in her bank account.
On May 6, she was contacted by two men claiming to be employees of NPCI. She was promised that all the money she had paid so far would be refunded to her, but she would have to pay fees to NPCI. A 'banker from a leading private bank' also called her and asked her to pay 'intercity charges' for the amount she was to receive from NPCI.
The complainant paid Rs 1.3 crore in total to the fraudsters until Jun 2024. She has said, in her police complaint, that she continues to get calls from the fraudsters, demanding more money. She also said she has to peruse her bank records to check how much she transferred to them besides Rs 1.3 crore.
The Cyber Police have registered an FIR and are probing further.