Hyderabad: A woman employee of a Singapore-based bank became a victim of a gift fraud and was duped of over 16 lakh. The banker also fell into a loan app trap. Initially, a fraudster, claiming to be working as a captain on a merchant navy ship, became friends with her over Instagram. He claimed to have sent her a gift parcel. Later, cyber criminals, pretending to be customs and airport authorities, made her cough up huge amounts towards various charges on the parcel, alleging that it contained foreign currency.
In Aug 2024, according to police, the ‘captain’ told the 25-year-old Nizampet resident that he would send her a parcel with some gifts and shoes. A few days later, she received a call from an unknown person informing her about the parcel and asking her to pay 38,000 towards courier charges. Later, she was asked to pay 1.1 lakh as charges because the parcel contained foreign currency and gold.
Meanwhile, when she confronted her friend, he told her that he was coming soon to India as he was planning to purchase an apartment in Hyderabad, for which he even paid an advance and asked for her help with visa processing and flight tickets. He also collected her bank details to pay her the amounts later. A few days later, he called her again, informing her that he was detained by the Delhi police and needed some more money to pay them, a police officer said.
For this, she obtained a 10,000 loan from a loan app and repaid the amounts, but the app organisers demanded more amounts and even sent her morphed pictures to her contacts. By then, she realised she was also duped by the ‘captain’, the officer said.
