Online fraudster dupes lady from Bengaluru

Bengaluru: A 33-year-old hospital administration executive has become a victim of online fraud.

The victim lost over Rs.2 lakh to a man who claimed to be an NRI paediatrician named Dr. Satnislaus Lobo from London. She met him on Bharath Matrimony portal and fell for his proposal to marry her. The two exchanged contacts and began to talk.

Lobo told the lady that his parents hailed from Mangaluru and he had lost them both at an young age. He said he was raised by his aunt and uncle. He also claimed that he wanted to get married to an Indian. The lady believed him and shared all the details about her family too.

After a few days, Lobo told the lady that he was coming to India soon to fix their marriage but before that he said he would send her a package from London containing pen drives which contained his family pictures along with a few gifts. In the last week of December, Lobo called the lady saying the package was dispatched. He said that the package contained pen drives, bags, perfumes, diamond-studded watch and an iPhone. He also sent her the images of these items on Whatsapp.

Two days later, the victim got a call from a woman who claimed that she was an employee of Trustway couriers and asked her to pay Rs.36000 as goods tax for the package that was sent to her. She called Lobo and asked about it. He said that he sent 1000 pounds along with the other items in the package for all these extra expenses.

Convinced by Lobo, the victim transferred the tax amount to the bank detail that was sent to her by the Woman from Trustworthy Couriers.

A few days later, the same woman from trustworthy courier called the victim and asked her to transfer Rs.61,000 as insurance money for the 10,000 pounds in the package. The victim transferred the money as she already knew about the 10,000 pounds that Lobo had assured of sending.

The victim received call for the third time from the courier woman asking for a payment of Rs. 86,000 as a tax for foreign exchange conversion. When she told Lobo about the payment, he again convinced her to pay saying that she will receive nearly Rs. 9 lakh after converting the 10,000 pounds.

The victim grew suspicious when she received another call for one more payment of Rs. 65000 to get clearance that the gift wasn’t part of terrorism activities. This time she got separate calls from the courier woman and Lobo. She told them that she doesn’t need the package and lodged a complaint with the cyber crime police.

The police are tracing the bank details to catch hold of Lobo and the courier woman. Further investigation is in progress.