Indian Man loses 1.25 Lakh to Facebook Woman in ‘London’

An Indian man from Mumbai filed a police complaint after he was scammed out of Rs. 1.25 Lakh (£1,300) by a woman on Facebook in ‘London’.

The victim, who works as a driver at a city-based luxury hotel, lodged a complaint at Saki Naka police station in Mumbai.

The scam began during late March 2019 when the victim received a friend request on Facebook from a woman who introduced herself as Viki Roz.

After accepting the request, the man began chatting to the woman. It became regular and she told him that she was originally from Brazil but lives in London.

Initially, they were speaking on Facebook but as they continued to chat, they exchanged phone numbers and began speaking on WhatsApp.

As they got to know each other, Roz told the man that she was in a property dispute with her uncle in Brazil and had an upcoming court case to settle it.

She later informed him that she won the court case and said that it was only possible due to his support.

Roz then said that she wanted to send him some gifts to say thanks. She sent him pictures of the ‘gifts’ which included a mobile phone, shoes, clothes and a watch.

Two days after the conversation, Roz told the man that he would have to transfer Rs. 25,000 (£275) into the account of a person named Vakil Khan.

The man believed that he would be receiving the expensive items so he deposited the money into the bank account.

However, he did not receive a parcel after sending the money. He called Roz to find out what happened to the gifts and she claimed that the parcel was still at the airport.

A few days after the call to Roz, the man received another call saying that there was a parcel for him, but he would have to pay Rs. 1 Lakh (£1,100) to have it sent to him as the items were expensive.

The man immediately transferred the money without checking to see if the claims were legitimate.

He received another call saying that there was money within the parcel that was in his name and that he would have to pay a further Rs. 2 Lakh (£2,200) as tax to get the items.

The man did not transfer the money and instead called Roz to inquire about it.

However, when he tried to phone her, there was no answer as she had turned her phone off.

At that point, the man realised that he had been scammed and went to the police to file a complaint. A case was registered and an investigation is underway.