Woman posing as NRI dupes Gurgaon man of Rs 19. 30 lakh

A woman allegedly duped a man of over Rs 19 lakh by posing as a Poland-based NRI, an official said on Sunday.

Abhishek Mishra, a resident of sector 47 here, had given a written complaint to police in March that he was duped by a woman of lakhs of rupees. After five months of probe, the Cyber Cell of the Gurgaon police registered an FIR against in the case on Sunday, he said.

Mishra had met with one Maria Patel on Facebook in February and later he started chatting with her on WhatsApp too, the official said.

She posed as a Poland-based NRI businesswoman and wanted to set up an IVF centre in Delhi. The woman told Mishra that she will travel to Indian and asked him for his help, he said.

"She told him she has a flight to Mumbai on February 19. On the same day, a man posed as a customs officer and asked Mishra that Patel was apprehended by the customs officials at Mumbai airport for carrying 2 lakh Euros in cash, which is way beyond the permissible limit," an official of the Cyber Cell said.

"The customs officer told Mishra that if she would pay customs duty, she would be released with the Euros. He also made Mishra to talk to Patel about it," he said.

Mishra transferred Rs 19.30 lakh on different dates in the next seven days. On February 28, the so called customs officer asked Mishra to pay more Rs 3.80 lakh to complete all formalities for release of Patel, the official said.

Mishra denied paying more money, following which the man and the woman switched off their mobile phones.

"We received a complaint on March 6, 2019, and scanned the bank account transactions, conversation of phone calls and social networking chats between them. The woman used phone numbers of Poland as well as India, said SHO, Cyber Cell, Suresh Kumar.