Woman seeking NRI groom for sister duped of Rs 71 lakh

A city woman looking for an NRI groom for her sister allegedly lost a whopping Rs 71.57 lakh to a conman who posed as a rich UK national and pocketed the money as customs duty for sending expensive gifts.

The woman, who works for a private firm, filed a complaint at the cybercrime police station of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) after she became suspicious of the man's intentions as the promised gifts never arrived.

According to the woman, it all started when her sister introduced her to a man named Andrew Cohen through WhatsApp on December 31, 2019. Her sister later culled his details from Instagram. The sisters then kept in touch with the man.

Just three days later, Cohen told the sisters he was sending them New Year's gifts. But something bizarre happened over the next three weeks. Between January 6 and 27, the complainant received WhatsApp calls from people claiming to be customs authorities and demanding money as various charges to deliver the gifts.

Believing them, she transferred a total of Rs 71,57,793 to bank accounts provided by the "customs" officials. She realised the cheating when the gifts didn't arrive.

An officer from the cybercrime police station said a case under the Information Technology Act had been opened against Cohen.