Cyber honey trap costs Valpoi man Rs 1.4 crore

Panaji: A 52-year-old resident of a remote village in Valpoi, below the Western Ghats, fell victim to a cyber honey trap laid by cyber fraudsters on a fake matrimonial site and lost Rs 1.4 crore.

Goa police arrested one person in connection with the alleged matrimonial site fraud case.The victim registered himself on the website and started chatting with a fraudster who claimed to be a woman and was searching for a groom on a matrimonial site.SP Rahul Gupta said that the accused acted with a common intention through a female identifying herself as Samsiyabegaum.Gupta said that the fake female account was created on a matrimonial site and contacted the victim on the same platform.“The accused deceitfully induced the complainant into a fraudulent forex trading platform by misrepresenting it as a legitimate investment avenue. Under the false pretext of high returns, the complainant was coerced into transferring Rs 1.4 crore through multiple transactions into different accounts. Thus, the accused cheated the complainant by impersonation and unlawful use of computer resources,” Gupta said.

A police team traced a 23-year-old resident of Nagpur, Rushabh Ishwariprasad Hanvate, and later arrested him, Gupta said.“It was revealed that the accused received Rs 9.9 lakh in his bank account at Layer 1, which was subsequently routed to multiple accounts of his associates. Further analysis uncovered that this account was linked to 19 other cyber fraud cases across India,” Gupta said.“We sent a request for blocking of the website too,” Gupta said.The arrested accused was produced before the court and remanded in police custody. Further investigation is ongoing under the supervision of PI Deepak Pednekar.