Mumbai: A 33-year-old woman from Malad was cheated of ₹2.45 lakh by a man who she met on a dating app. The man, who claimed to be a doctor from the United Kingdom (UK), told her that he was stuck in the Customs department while coming to India to meet her and would repay her once he was out.
According to the woman, she had met the fraud on a dating app two months ago. The man had introduced himself as Jeet Malkarjit, and on November 1, he told the complainant that he was coming to India to meet her.
On November 20, the man called her and said that he was boarding a flight to India. “I trusted the fraud then as he had sounded convincing,” the woman added.
On November 21, the woman received a call from an unidentified woman. She claimed to be from the Customs department in Delhi and that her friend had been detained as he was carrying a large amount of foreign currency. The fraud told the woman that he needed money to get out of the situation and he did not know anyone from India besides her.
The woman ended up paying ₹2.45 lakh to the account given to her by the fraud. Then, she called up the fraud but found his phone to be switched off. The woman then called up the Customs office and found out that they had never detained any man named Jeet Malkarjit.
“The woman then approached us and registered a complaint against the fraud as well as the woman from whom she received the call claiming to be from Customs,” said a police officer.