Poonam Singh

A 40-year-old Lucknow woman working with a bank was duped over Rs 70,000 by a cyber fraudster recently.

Reportedly, a cyber thug had lured the woman as a 'prospective groom' from New York on a matrimonial site. 

The thug had introduced himself as Sonu Singh, a resident of New York. After their meeting on the matrimonial site, they had exchanged phone numbers. Following which, they were talking regularly with each other and after one month they decided to get married.

The victim in her complaint said, ‘The accused said he was sending the jewelry for their engagement ceremony through a courier service. He had also shared pictures of jewelery on WhatsApp.’

Then, a lady from the courier company called me and said that you have to pay Rs 73,000 to receive the packet. I transferred the money but the packet was not received. 

Later, the accused, Sonu Singh, switched off his phone and all his communication lines were also closed. The victim then approached Gomti Nagar extension police station and filed a complaint

The Station House Officer (SHO), Anil Kumar Singh said based on the victim's complaint, an FIR under the charges of criminal breach of trust and cheating and dishonesty was lodged.

"We will be taking the help of Cyber Cell to investigate the matter," he added.

Meanwhile, cyber Cell officials claimed that the modus-operandi suggests the fraud seems to be the handiwork of a Nigerian gang, which had earlier duped a retired HAL engineer of Rs 8 lakh by posing as a German girl.

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