Woman From Cuttack City Falls Prey To ‘Honey Trap’ On Instagram, Loses Nearly Rs 8 Lakh

Cuttack: A young woman from Bidanasi in Odisha’s Cuttack city was allegedly honey-trapped and duped of Rs 7.95 lakh by a cyber fraudster.

The matter came to light after a complaint was lodged at the Cyber Crime police station here on Thursday.

“The victim had received a ‘follow request’ on Instagram from the fraudster, identified as Ahmad Daniel, in July and they soon began to chat. After a week, the fraudster trapped her emotionally on the pretext of marriage, which we term as ‘honey-trap’,” inspector-in-charge (IIC) Chandrika Swain told media.

The fraudster posed as a ship manager in London. He also sent her images and videos of some gifts that he wanted to send her to India. “He asked the woman to send her photo and permanent address and claimed that the gift contains a gold chain, bracelet, expensive shoes, a bag, and USD 20,000,” said the IIC.

Later, he informed her that he had couriered the gift. Thereafter, the young woman received a phone call from the alleged courier company and she was asked to pay a certain amount since the gift was seized by the Customs department at the airport.

Initially, the victim paid Rs Rs 50,000 but when she was asked to pay larger amounts to the tune of lakhs in phases but received no items, she grew suspicious and approached police for help. “The cyber fraudsters convinced her to transfer Rs 7.95 lakh to accounts of Indian Bank and Canara Bank in around eight transactions,” added IIC Chandrika.

A case has been registered under Sections 419, 420, 465, 468, 471 of IPC and sec 66 (C), 66 (D) of IT Act.

Preliminary investigation revealed that though the victim had received some international calls, the account used in the fraud was found to be located in India.