Zee Media Bureau
Dehradun: As they always say, choose your friends wisely. And when it comes to friendships on social networks, you ought to be extra vigilant else you can land in trouble. A glaring case of this has recently come into light.
According to TOI, Beena Bor Thankur of Dehradun got duped of Rs 1.30 cr by a ``Facebook friend`` after he promised her a sum of $1.5 million (Rs 9 crore) to open an old-age home in Dehradun.
Beena, wife of an ONGC employee befriended a man named Richard Anderson through Facebook in November last year. Both of them started chatting over the phone as well.
"In the telephonic conversations, Anderson told Beena that he wanted to help the people of India and came up with several proposals to that end. He also sought suggestions from her. Following that, he assured her that he would provide Rs 9 crore for the oldage home," reported the Dehradun SSP Ajay Rautela.
After some days, she received a call in which the caller claimed he was from the foreign exchange branch of Reserve Bank of India. He told Beena that she could claim the amount by paying the tax due on it.
Beena was first asked to "clear a tax" to get the said amount. Believing her friend`s words she deposited Rs 1.3 crore in various bank accounts. She later received calls from two persons who called themselves William George and Kevin Brown, asking her for more money. So she ended up depositing Rs 1.30 crore in 25 accounts.
A case under section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the IPC has now been registered against Anderson, George, Brown and one more person. Station officer VK Jheta said that efforts are on to trace details of the bank accounts in which the money had been deposited. "Most of these accounts are from South India, that is, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka," he added.
