Woman duped by fake govt officer

New Delhi: A woman named Sudipta Sarkar has alleged that a lady, by the name of Priya Sharma, had fooled her on the phone by imposing as an immigration officer.

The latter asked Ms Sarkar to transfer Rs 1,40,000 to her account in order to release one of her German friend, who was detained at Delhi airport for carrying a huge amount of dollars.

“At about 1 am on Thursday, Ms Sarkar got back from Vadodara by flight number 6E-488 and told a crime and intelligence wing (CIW) personnel of the Central Industrial Security Force  (CISF) that a woman had called her up introducing herself as Priya Sharma, an immigration officer.

“She said that Brian Franklin, one of her German Facebook friends (who was coming to visit her), was detained at the IGI airport for carrying a large quantity of dollars,” said a CISF official on the condition of anonymity.

“In order to get him released, she was required to transfer Rs 1,40,000 to the bank account of one Siddhant Choudhary,” said the official.

“The victim then transferred Rs 60,000 on Monday in the said account. Ms Sarkar was not aware of the flight number by which her friend had arrived and the phone number of the immigration officer was found to be switched off.  Later, the victim made a PCR call and informed the police,” the official added.

Meanwhile, the Delhi police said that it has received a PCR call but no case has been registered in this regard.

“The matter took place in Gujarat and nobody related to the said case has been detained at the IGI Airport. We have not filed any complaint in this matter,” said a police official on the condition of anonymity.

Earlier in March this year, Facebook friendship proved costly to an Odisha resident, who was duped of several lakhs by an online syndicate.