Bollywood art director duped by man she met on dating app

MUMBAI: A 43-year-old art director from Versova, who has worked in several Bollywood movies, was cheated to the tune of ₹3.37 lakh by a cyber fraud who befriended her on a dating app by posing as an NRI.
An FIR has been registered at the Versova Police Station in this regard. The art director came to know she was being duped after being alerted by an officer from her bank. After the alert, she stopped any more money transfer and registered a case at the Versova Police Station.
The police said the woman lives alone in Yari Road, Versova, while her family lives in Uttar Pradesh. “She met a man on dating application, Tinder, last month. The two exchanged their mobile numbers and spoke for around 15 days. The man told her that he was an Indian settled in a foreign country and wanted to come to Mumbai to meet her,” said a police officer.
On September 16, she got a call from a man who identified himself as a customs officer posted at the Delhi airport. “He told her that her friend was caught at the airport as he was carrying undeclared foreign currency (euros) and asked her to pay ₹86,500 as declaration charges in Indian rupees via UPI. He called her again and told her that they have also found gold in her friend’s possession and the tax payable on it was ₹2.50 lakh,” said the police officer. Believing it to be true, the woman immediately transferred the amounts using her phone.
The caller made a third call to tell her that her friend would be released on payment of a penalty of ₹4.99 lakh. Since the amount was big, the woman went to an HDFC bank to send the money through a NEFT transfer. A bank official casually inquired why she was transferring the amount. On being told about the airport episode, he told her that he suspected that she was probably being duped by cyber frauds.
The woman then approached the police, and a case was registered under Section 318(4) (cheating) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 and sections 66C (identity theft) and 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act, 2000 against unknown people.