Techie falls prey to online fraud, loses Rs 4.7 lakh

A techie fell prey to online fraud and lost Rs 4.70 lakh recently.

M Ramesh, a resident of Nelamangala, lodged a complaint with the Ashok Nagar police after he was duped by a nurse, Rachana Karam Vaidya, who claimed to be based in the US.

Ramesh, an engineer with a private firm in Rajarajeshwari Nagar, received a friend request  on Facebook from  Rachana. They  exchanged mobile phone numbers and started talking to each other, the police said.

According to the police, Rachana told  Ramesh that she would be visiting Karnataka soon and was interested in seeing  historical places, and asked  him to arrange a house for rent during her stay in Bengaluru. When Ramesh told her about his  financial constraints, Rachana promised to send her gold ornaments  and money to pay for the house.

"On October 2, I received a call from a woman posing as an official of the customs department at the international airport in New Delhi. She asked  me to pay Rs 38,000 to claim a parcel that had arrived for me  from the US. She requested me to deposit money into the account of airport officer, Suman Devi. I trusted her and deposited the money on October 3," the techie stated in his  complaint.

Ramesh received another call from a woman on October 10, asking him to deposit Rs 1.62 lakh for service clearance. Then, he  got a  call, seeking Rs 2.70 lakh towards tax code due to the weight of the parcel. He deposited the money on both occasions.

"On  October 25, a  man claiming to be Saurabh Joshi, general manager, regional office, RBI, Bengaluru, called me. He told me that the money I had sent to the various accounts wasn't deposited. He wanted me to deposit Rs 4.70 lakh again. He disconnected my call when I expressed anger," the complaint stated.

When contacted, RBI authorities told Ramesh that Joshi was not one of their  employees in Bengaluru.

Rachana deleted her Facebook account on October 26 and the numbers she used to call Ramesh were switched off, the police said.  

The Ashok Nagar police have approached cyber crime experts to trace the suspects.