Case 10 - Social media friend
A woman befriended a foreigner on Facebook and decided to marry him within 15 days. He claimed to send her a valuable gift, but she received calls saying it was seized by customs, demanding money to release it. She paid some amount, then was told her "husband" was also detained and asked for more money. A friend later informed her it was a scam. The man was a fraudster posing as a wealthy foreigner, using fake gift and customs stories to extort money.
A woman described an instance in which her spouse was abducted. Her spouse had sent her a gift, but it was first confiscated, and the CBI stopped him at the airport as he was leaving to meet her. When I asked when they were married, the woman said that we decided to be married after becoming friends on Facebook fifteen days prior. He is a foreigner. Two days ago he had sent a gift for me and next day I got a call that the gift had been seized at the airport, the customs officials were demanding money to release it, it contained expensive stuff so we gave some money then they again started asking for additional information.
After telling her yesterday that he would meet her and release the items after his arrival, she received a call today stating that he had also been stopped. They demanded fifty thousand rupees, so we gave twenty thousand rupees, but the customs officers refused. When we plucked up the nerve to tell our buddy about it, she informed us that it was not a friend or husband, but rather an online scammer who calls pretending to be a husband or a customs officer.Yes, the woman's buddy was correct; they are online criminals who pose as well-known, wealthy individuals on Facebook in order to defraud people. They then claim to be sending a present for you before getting caught and requesting money to free themselves. This is a phishing-like trap.
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