Valentine's gift scam: Mumbai woman loses ₹3.6 lakhs to pay for present sent by 'foreigner friend'

A 51-year-old woman from Mumbai allegedly lost Rs 3.68 lakh after being lured by a man on a social media platform under the pretext of sending her a gift for Valentine's Day, a police official said on Monday.

The woman, who is married, befriended the man, who introduced himself as Alex Lorenzo, on Instagram last Wednesday, the official from Khar police station said.

The man later told her that he had sent her a Valentine's Day gift for which she will have to pay a fee of Euros 750 after receiving the parcel, he said quoting the complainant.

Later, she received a message from a courier company that as the parcel was heavier than the permissible limit, she would have to pay an additional charge of Rs 72,000, which she paid, the official said.

The courier company representatives contacted the woman again saying they had found European currency notes in the parcel and to avoid being charged for money laundering, she would have to shell out Rs 2,65,000. She then paid the sum, he said.

However, when the woman was asked again to pay another Rs 98,000 to get the parcel that the man had sent her, she got suspicious.

When she stopped paying the amount, Lorenzo started threatening her saying he would post her pictures on social media and also share them with her family members, the official said.

The woman subsequently lodged a complaint with the Khar police.

Based on the complaint, the police on Sunday registered an FIR against two unidentified persons under various Indian Penal Code sections including 420 (cheating) and provisions of the Information Technology Act, the official said.

An investigation was on into the case, he added.

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