United States: A 24-year-old woman from Andheri, India, was duped 18,847.80 US dollars (₹15 lakh) by a group of cyber fraudsters from Florida, as per the sources.
One of the fraudsters acts as a friend to that woman on Instagram (Social media platform) by posing as a US-based surgeon currently working in a military camp in Syria. The accused gained the trust of the victim through emotional and untrue stories and later squeezed money from her under false pretexts.
Moreover, the cyber police of the West region are working on the case. The complainant, who works as a lab technician with a Bandra-based private hospital on April 14, 2022, received a message from Benson Smith on Instagram. He noted, “Hey Charming, What an astonishing smile you got here. I got caught by that wonderful smile; I couldn’t take my eyes off you without saying Hi.”
She replied, and they started having a conversation frequently thereafter.
As per the police complaint, Smith introduced himself as a Florida-based surgeon currently working in Hamam military camp in Syria. He shared information with the women that his salary, bank account and locker have good savings.
But he suspects that the bank manager is misusing money from the account as well as the locker. He wanted to keep his bank money and gold from the locker in someone’s safe custody.
He further stated that he has no family or relatives in Florida. He told the complainant woman he was sending his monkey and gold to her in India in a parcel through a Syria embassy diplomat for safekeeping. Smith embassy diplomat for safekeeping. Smith also shared the parcel tracking code with her.
The cyber police station official stated, “On May 6, the complainant received an email from the courier company stating that her parcel has arrived from Syria to India and if she wants to take the delivery of the parcel then she would have to pay an emergency charge of ₹2.84 lakh. She paid the money. Later, a person posing as a diplomat from Syria in India called the woman and asked her to deposit ₹4 lakh to get the customs clearance certificate.”
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