Hyderabad: A pastor from the city has been targeted by cybercrooks, who collected Rs 5 lakh from him towards various clearances from government agencies to release a gift parcel from abroad.
According to police, the pastor living under Rachakonda police commissionerate limits, lodged a complaint stating that a woman, whom he met on Facebook duped him to the tune of Rs 5 lakh. The pastor and the woman, who claimed to be from the US, conversed on the social media platform for some time and that is when the stranger told him that her mother passed away and she had huge debts.
The pastor told his friend that he would perform some prayers for the betterment of her life. Weeks later, the woman messaged him that her problems had been solved and she sent him a gift as a token of gratitude.
The police said that the pastor received a call from another stranger who claimed to be a customs official informing that he received a parcel from abroad containing huge amounts of dollars, for which he has to pay taxes to release the gift parcel. Rachakonda cyber crime ACP S Harinath said, “Believing the caller, the victim transferred about Rs 5 lakh into the bank accounts provided to him. As calls were later unattended and the Facebook friend also stopped responding, he realised cheating and lodged a complaint.”
