LUCKNOW: With six cases of fraud being reported this year since January, befriending targets on Facebook is fast turning out to be an easy way for conmen to dupe Lucknow residents.In 2018, two such cases were reported and one each was reported in 2017 and 2016. Lucknow residents collectively lost Rs15 lakh to such frauds from 2016-18, said cybercell officials.In all these cases, miscreants posed as wealthy professionals and duped residents with a promise of expensive gifts, exchanging foreign currency or visits to India.On Monday, Adarsh Srivastava, who works in a bank in Indiranagar, was duped of Rs 1 lakh by a man. The accused told him that he was an industrialist settled in US.In his complaint, Srivastava told the police that the accused, Majorie Boulton, had sent him a friend request on Facebook.She told the complainant that she had sent him a goldstudded gift and sought Rs 1 lakh for getting it past customs.However, Srivastava never got the gift, even after transferring the amount to Boulton’s account. The woman later unfriended him on Facebook and he informed the police.In another case, Jankipuram resident Pratishtha Chaudhary was duped of Rs 2 lakh by a man, who claimed to be a petroleum engineer in Germany, on March 17.Chaudhary told police that she became friends with the accused, Paul Walter, on Facebook in December, 2018. After chatting for a while, the two became friends. In January, Walter sent Chaudhary a message on Facebook and told her that he would be coming to India. He asked for Rs 2 lakh to get customs clearance for dollars he planned to bring along on his India visit. After she had deposited the amount in a bank in Noida, Chaudhary didn’t get any reply from Walter and he had also unfriended her on Facebook. Later, she reported the matter to the police.

Stay updated with all the Lucknow Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.