Gift Fraud: Woman Loses Rs 4.15 lakh to an Instagram User
33-year-old woman from Mumbai was duped of over Rs 4 lakh by a user she befriended on Instagram.
A 33-year-old woman from Mumbai was scammed of over Rs 4.15 lakh by a person she befriended on Instagram. Yes such frauds are happening and we all need to be very careful. An FIR was filed at the Powai Police Station on 5 December 2022. In the complaint, the woman said she had accepted a friend request from someone named ‘David Lucas’ having an Instagram handle “captain.david_38” on 23 November 2022. She became “friends” after which they moved to WhatsApp from Instagram.
As the man was using an international number, the woman believed that he was calling from a foreign country. After a week, the woman received a WhatsApp call around 10 am where David told her that he had sent her an iPhone and 20,000 pounds in cash as a gift. The scam did not end there. The woman received a call from the “courier service" and she will have to pay Rs. 20,000 as courier charges. The woman told the police that she thought it was genuine and made the payment. However, she kept getting calls for more money. The fraudster asked for another Rs. 68,000 because the parcel contained 20,000 pounds. She paid Rs. 50,000 but the fraudsters kept making her pay more money saying that she needed to pay tax, and that they would need to convert the money from pounds to rupees.
After all these calls, the woman was told that Rs 20 lakh was sent to her account and now she needs to pay a processing fee of Rs 1 lakh. Finally doubting, the woman called up her Instagram friend and told him she doesn’t require the gifts anymore, and asked for her money back. Later, ‘David’ blocked all communication with her, which is when she realized that she was being scammed.
