28-year-old actor loses ₹5.10 lakh in gift scam
A 28-year-old actor in Mumbai lost ₹5.10 lakh in a gift scam after befriending a man online who promised her a job and marriage. Police are investigating.
MUMBAI: The Malad police registered a cheating case on Thursday after a 28-year-old actor who specialises in VFX movies lost ₹5.10 lakh in a gift scam.
The incident took place this year between August 8 and September 8, when the victim identified as Shalini Jha was at her home in Chincholi Bunder, Malad West, when she received a friend request from a man, who identified himself as Amarpreet Singh on a social media app.
Jha accepted his request as his profile showed he was settled in the United Kingdom. The two began chatting and exchanged phone numbers.
A few days later, Jha said that Singh called her, offered her a job in the UK, and even sent her a marriage proposal, saying that he would start her visa formalities so she could move to the UK as soon as possible.
On August 7, the accused called Jha and told her that he had sent a gift worth around ₹90 lakh for her which would be arriving the next day. Jha said that on August 9, she received a call from a person who told her that he was speaking from the airport parcel department and that to claim the gift she would have to pay ₹9 lakh as tax.
Jha did not pay the money, following which on August 11, she received a call from a man claimed to be from the Income Tax department, and told her that if she failed to pay the amount, the parcel would be seized. After the warning, Jha transferred ₹5.10 lakh from her account to the bank account which was given to her by the fraud.
On September 9, she received a call asking her to make the remaining payment. She did not have the money; she approached her sister-in-law for a loan. Jha’s sister-in-law asked her as to why she wanted the money, she revealed the ordeal, and it was then she was told that it was a scam and that she was cheated.
“We have registered a case against the unidentified caller and are trying to identify and track the accused persons through the bank transaction that the victim made,” said a police officer from Malad police station.