BENGALURU: A 42-year-old woman lost around Rs 31 lakh in an overseas gift scam. The woman fell prey after receiving an email informing her of a Rs 5 crore gift in US dollars. The scam played out in a phased manner over nearly two months, during which the accused made her transfer money as various types of fees, and an accused even visited her house.
Anupama Kiran, a resident of Jayanagar 3rd Block, filed a complaint saying she had received an email on December 12 last year, informing that she had won a gift of almost Rs 5 crore in US dollars. She then received a call from one of the accused, claiming to be Raymond Austin from the US Embassy in New Delhi. He told her she would receive an email from the embassy office to pay the processing fee to claim the gift. Over the next fortnight, the accused made her transfer money for various types of fees.
One of the accused also visited her house and handed over foreign currency notes to check if they were genuine. Anupama took the currency to a bank and a foreign exchange branch, which certified it as real, leading her deeper into the trap.
“On December 28, a person claiming to be Guna approached the victim near her house and gave her some dollars, asking her to check if they were genuine. After getting to know the dollars were real, she even got them exchanged to rupees at a money exchange centre.
After she got around Rs 45,000, she blindly believed in the scam and ended up losing nearly Rs 31 lakh,” said an officer. The fraudsters even blackmailed her, saying that Guna has been caught by police when he was coming to hand over the gift money, and she would be in trouble if she didn’t pay CBI clearance fee, investigation officer fee and Customs clearance.