Another day, another online scam! A 32-year-old woman in Delhi was duped of Rs. 6 lakhs by a man pretending to be a merchant navy officer from Sweden. Narrating her ordeal, the Pratap Nagar resident informed the police that she had been talking to the man named Pradeep Kumar Thakur since September 15. Thakur had told her that he wanted to move to India and live in Delhi. She went on to explain that Thakur told her he had asked his agent to book a flight from Lisbon to Delhi. But then, he said there was a mix-up, and the agent booked a flight to Mumbai instead. Thakur planned to take another flight from Mumbai to Delhi later on.
“Thakur told me that he had plans to settle down in India permanently with his mother and 5-year-old daughter. He asked me where I worked, and said he would settle in Delhi accordingly. We exchanged numbers and started talking on WhatsApp,” the Times of India quoted the woman's statement to police officials.
On October 16, the woman got a WhatsApp call from Pradeep, who said he was stuck at Mumbai Customs and needed help. Soon after, she got a call from a woman pretending to be a Customs official in Mumbai. The fake official said Pradeep was held because he had a cheque of Rs. 2 crore, which exceeded the limit for someone entering India from overseas.
Convinced by the detailed narrative, the woman ended up transferring Rs. 6 lakhs, only to discover later that she fell victim to a scam. Consequently, a police case was filed on November 30 under sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC.
As of now, there's no information about the police nabbing the scammer.
