Bhubaneswar: Two cyber fraudsters, who honey-trapped a man from Baripada and duped him of Rs 87 lakh by pretending they are realtors from Switzerland, were arrested by the Crime Branch in New Delhi Tuesday. The accused were identified as Binod Kumar Singh and Sanjeev Kumar of New Delhi.
The complainant, Tapan Kumar Dash, of Madhuban under Baripada police limits in Mayurbhanj, received a friend’s request on his Facebook account from a lady named Christie Dawson from Switzerland in September 2018. He accepted the friend’s request and both started exchanging messages on FB and WhatsApp. Dawson misled Dash that she was into real estate business in Switzerland and was keen to invest in real estate in India.
Later, Dash received a message from Dawson September 26, 2018 that she was coming to India. Two days later, he again received a phone call from a lady who identified herself as the customs officer at Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi that Dawson was detained at the airport along with her 3 lakh pounds. Dawson requested Dash to deposit the amount which she would repay after the release of the seized amount.
Dash deposited the money in the bank account of a fake customs officer. He also deposited cash in different accounts on the pretext of fine, GST and other heads.
A few days later, he again received a message on his mobile that a foreign origin man named John Skotan from South Africa would arrive at Bhubaneswar along with the released pounds and repay him. Accordingly, he met the person carrying a black box reportedly containing the money in pounds at Hotel Arya Palace in Bhubaneswar.
Skotan took out a bottle of liquid from his bag and demonstrated how the black coloured notes will be washed into dollars with the liquid. Skotan told Dash that as the amount of money is huge he needed a few more bottles of liquid to wash the notes and left for Delhi to fetch the same. Dash deposited a few more lakhs of rupees in Skotan’s bank account. The total money defrauded added up to Rs 87 lakhs.
The Crime Branch registered a case (22/18) and investigated the matter based on the complaint of Dash 22 December, 2018. The sleuths found out that all the characters in the fraud were false and the masterminds are Binod Kumar Singh and Sanjeev Kumar of New Delhi. The sleuths produced the duo before the Metropolitan Magistarte at Patiala House Court 1 February, 2019 and were brought to the city Tuesday after the end of their five-day remand.
