Posing as NRI, conman cheats widow of Rs 3.9 lakh

Posing as an NRI from the UK, a man cheated a 40-year-old widow of Rs 3.9 lakh, having contacted her on a matrimonial website.

He told the woman that he needed to pay penalty at the New Delhi airport for carrying diamonds and excess baggage.

Following a complaint by the victim, the Adugodi police booked accused Arman Malik under IPC Section 420 (cheating) and are investigating the case further.

The woman stated in her complaint that she created a profile on Jeevansathi.com in December 2019 and got in touch with Malik, who claimed to be a well-settled NRI. Malik also told her that he would arrive in India in five days and get married to her.

On December 30, Malik made a distress call, claiming that he was caught by customs officials at the New Delhi airport for carrying a large number of diamonds and excess luggage. He needed to pay a fine to get them released and asked the woman to send him the money.

Thinking that Malik was actually in trouble, the woman wired Rs 2.7 lakh to the account he specified and a further Rs 1.2 lakh the following day. She tried calling Malik, but his phone was switched off.

The woman received another call from Malik on January 2 with the request to pay another Rs 85,000 to get the packets he left with the customs released.

But by then she realised she had been duped and lodged a complaint with the police, who are trying to trace Malik with the bank account and phone number he provided the victim.

Cases of fraudsters befriending widows and ageing women through matrimonial sites and luring them with expensive gifts have been on the increase in recent times. The cybercrime police station registered 20 fraud cases in 2017, which increased to 45 in 2018 and 80 in 2019.