Mumbai Crime: Government officer duped of Rs 32 lakh

Foreign national befriends Ahmednagar-based man over the internet before cheating him

A 32-year-old agricultural officer was cheated by some foreign nationals to the tune of Rs 32 lakh by befriending him over social media and asking him to make online payments on an account under some pretext. One Nigerian accused Orso Yuce, 35, has been arrested in the case by the Bandra police.

Complainant Abasaheb More, 32, a resident of Sangamner, Ahmednagar, works as an agricultural officer at the block level. More was on a Mumbai tour last month when he received a friend request on his Facebook account from a woman named Silvana Lidiyana. The two soon began chatting and Lidiyana told More that she stayed in the United Kingdom and was to visit India soon. She also said that she would like to meet him.

"The two began chatting on Whatsapp when Lidiyana told him on May 12 that she had sent a parcel to the Mumbai airport and that it had been confiscated by the customs officials.

She requested More to claim the parcel by paying some fees," an officer from the Bandra police station narrated. More collected the parcel and sent Rs 40,200 on the account number shared by Lidiyana. On the same day, another person, claiming to be speaking from the Mumbai airport, asked More to pay another Rs 85,250.

On May 18, More was asked to pay another Rs 3.75 lakh. Such incidents continued until he had spent almost R32 lakh and finally realised he had been cheated. He then registered a complaint at the Bandra police station against Silvana Lidiyana and another person.

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