Visakhapatnam man falls bait to Rs. 6 lakh online money-transfer fraud

A person has been duped of Rs 6 lakh in an online money-transfer fraud in Visakhapatnam. The victim, Sanjay Singh, lodged a complaint with the Visakhapatnam Cybercrime Police on Tuesday.

According to sources, the victim, a resident of Nausena Baugh, was befriended by a woman named Aisha, from the United States, on social media. Claiming to be on her death bed, the woman had promised Mr. Singh, of transferring 5.5 million US dollars into his bank account, to establish a charitable trust in Visakhapatnam. She further informed him that her personal lawyer would contact him to carry forward the transaction.

A few days later, the 52-year-old Singh received a call from a man, who introduced himself as Aisha’s lawyer. The caller asked Singh to pay Rs 6,62,470/-, in order to get clearance from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Customs Department. As instructed by the caller, he transferred the amount to thirteen separate bank accounts. However, Singh did not receive the promised amount.

Upon realising that he had been fallen bait to fraud, Sanjay Singh approached the Visakhapatnam city police and filed a complaint at the Cybercrime Police Station, on 17 December. Speaking to the media, Circle Inspector (CI) V Gopinath said that they have registered a case of online fraud and are carrying out investigations to find the fraudsters.

Earlier in October, a resident of MVP Colony in Visakhapatnam was duped of Rs. 3.6 lakh in an online-car sale fraud. Back then, CI Gopinath had tracked down the culprit and nabbed him in Noida, seizing his mobile number and bank account.