Shillong lady duped by 'internet friend'

A CORRESPONDENT

SHILLONG, April 8: Despite several reported incidents of cheating by the so called “internet friends” and advisories by police women in Shillong are still falling prey to such frauds.

In the latest incident, one lady lodged a complaint with the police that on April 6, she received a phone call from a lady claiming to be Customs Official at IGI Airport, New Delhi.

The lady informed her that a parcel sent by her internet friend “Victor Jack Dominic” of London has arrived.

The lady who purportedly called from the IGI Airport in New Delhi asked the complaint to deposit Rs 34,500 for clearance of the same.

The lady deposited the amount in good faith. Later, she realised that she has been cheated.

It may be mentioned that the state police had sent out advisories that fraudsters befriend females though social networking sites like Facebook and claim to be in foreign land.

After having established friendship the fraudsters then inform their female friends that they will be visiting India or that they will be sending a parcel of items to the victims.

Subsequently, they will inform that they have been detained in the airport or that the parcel has been detained by the customs for which they need urgent money to pay as fine.

The victim is then asked to deposit a certain amount of money into an account of another person in India.

It is only after they have deposited the money and after a long wait, the victim then realises that her face book friend has duped her.

It may be mentioned that last year a lady from Shillong was duped of Rs 2,16,030.