Woman cheated of Rs 15 lakh by Facebook ‘friend’

A teacher with a private school in the city was duped by her Facebook contact, who tricked her into parting with Rs 15 lakh after promising her a costly gift.

The 55-year-old victim, a resident of Ramamurthy Nagar, in her complaint said she came in contact with one Dr Kevin on Facebook. After a few days, he took her phone number and the two started exchanging WhatsApp messages.

On June 9, Kevin told her that he has sent her 45000 British pounds as a gift. Later she got a call by a person who identified himself as an officer from the customs department. He told her to pay customs charge and service charge to get the gift.

Subsequently, she made an online transfer of around Rs 15 lakh in few transactions to the different bank accounts given to her. But when they insisted to pay more, she got suspicious and filed the complaint with the East CEN crime police.

A case has been registered under the Information Technology Act and cheating and further investigation is on, an investigating officer said.