Woman duped people via fake social media accounts, lured one to pay 34K for her release

Delhi Police has nabbed a woman who duped people using fake Facebook and WhatsApp profiles, an official said here on Saturday.

According to the official, a complaint was received on Home Ministry's Cyber Crime Portal from complainant Dharam Raj, a resident of Burari in Delhi, wherein the complainant alleged that he received a friend request on Facebook from a girl namely Amara Gujral and after accepting the request, he started talking to her on Facebook and WhatsApp.

Woman named Amara Gujral started talking to one of the victim on Facebook and WhatsApp | Unsplash

The girl claimed that she lives in the UK and is coming to Delhi.

Subsequently, the complainant received a call from a woman, who introduced herself as Custom Officer from Mumbai and stated that Amara Gujral was stopped at Mumbai Airport with some valuable gifts and he need to pay money to release Amara.

Following the inducement, the complainant paid Rs 34,000 in bank account provided by alleged Custom Officer. Later on, he was blocked by alleged Amara Gujral on Facebook and WhatsApp.

After this, the police registered a case under section 420 of the IPC and initiated the investigation.

Technical analysis of the Facebook profile, IPDR and call details were done. Based on the investigation the accused (operating the Facebook profile with name Amara Gujral), a 29 year-old girl, was tracked and apprehended from her rented flat in Krishna Puri in Delhi's Tilak Nagar.

During interrogation, the accused disclosed that she came in contact with several African origin neighbors in her locality, who used to dupe people in several ways and came to know about this method of cheating.

Fake local SIM cards and LYCA SIM Cards with country code +44 collected from Amara Gujral | Unsplash

"She collected some fake local SIM cards and LYCA SIM Cards with country code +44 and created several fake profiles in the name of Amara Gujral, Lakshikha Choudhry, Avni Chopra, Avantika Chopra, Anamika Gujral, Emily Rose," Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Sagar Singh Kalsi said.

He said that the photos uploaded on these profiles were downloaded from original profiles of the UK residents.

Also read: Fake Accounts On Social Media Now Able To Copy

Accused used to send friend request to Facebook users and started talking to them on WhatsApp number with country code +44. She also sent photographs of valuable gift to victim Dharam Raj in present case and photographs of flight tickets for her arrival in India. She then called the victim from a Mumbai number and introduced herself as a Custom Officer at Mumbai, who detained Amara Gujral at Mumbai airport and asked the victim for payment of Excise Duty to release the gift brought for the victim. After the payment on provided bank accounts, accused blocked victim from Facebook and WhatsApp.

With her arrest, the police have recovered 13 mobile phones,16 SIM cards including 4 Lyca Mobile SIM cards and one Wi-fi Dongle. Accused was operating six fake Facebook profiles and one Instagram profile.

(IANS/PR)

(Keywords: Delhi Police, fake social media accounts, fake pictures, numbers, African,country code +44, 13 mobile phones,16 SIM cards including 4 Lyca Mobile SIM cards, wifi Dongle)