Thiruvananthapuram: A 58-year-old Nettayam resident has lost Rs 12 lakh in an elaborate online fraud. According to police, he was friends with an unidentified person on social media, who claimed to be a US-based doctor. Recently, the man contacted him claiming that he was held at Delhi airport by customs officers during his arrival to meet him with luxurious gifts and dollars-worth crores of Indian rupees.
Later, the Nettayam resident was contacted by people impersonating as customs officers and was asked to transfer money to clear customs duty at the airport. The victim was initially asked to pay only Rs 48,000, but after paying it, he was asked to transfer Rs 98,000. The accused kept on demanding more money and the victim ended up paying Rs 12 lakh. After that he was contacted by some other people, impersonating federal officers, and informed him that the US citizen was a terrorist. They asked him to transfer the whole amount in his account to an account they suggested as part of the probe.
However, the victim approached police and that was when he realised that the whole incident were part of an online fraud.
On the complaint of the victim, city cyber police began a probe after registering a case against as many as 16 people under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 318 (4) for cheating, 319 (2) for cheating by personation, 336 (2) for forgery, 336 (3) forgery for the purpose of cheating, 340 (2) for fraudulent use of a forged document, and 66 (D) of the Information Technology Act.