A 44-year-old woman, a teacher in a posh Mumbai school, was allegedly duped by online frauds, who extorted Rs 3.45 lakh from her on the pretext sending her morphed pictures to her husband, friends and relatives.
The police said a case has been registered at Vanrai police station.
The woman has alleged that she received a message from a person named Dr Tommy Sampbell on February 20.
She responded to the message, after which they started chatting on a regular basis. They shared phone numbers and on a couple of occasions, the fraud, who identified himself as Sampbell, even made video calls to her, but did not show his face,” said an officer.
The police said that Sampbell later claimed that he has sent a parcel for her for which she will have to pay custom charges.
The woman refused to pay initially, but later, received a call from a person who posed as a customs officer from an airport in Delhi. Following this, she transferred Rs 76,000. She again deposited another Rs 2 lakh as custom and other charges,” said the officer.
As the teacher refused to pay more, the accused started blackmailing her. The police said he sent her morphed pictures that he had created using screenshots he had taken during their video calls.
The fraud threatened to send the images to her husband, friends and relatives, due to which she ended up paying another Rs 69,000,” said the officer.
Later. as the accused kept demanding more money, the woman informed her husband and lodged a police complaint.
