Accountant of confectionery chain loses Rs 8 lakh to online gift scam

Kasaragod: An accountant with a confectionery chain in Kasaragod lost around Rs 8 lakh to a phishing expedition, which started with a 'Facebook friend from the UK' sending her an "expensive gift".

Anuja P, 39, transferred Rs 8,01,400 in six transactions to a bank account purportedly belonging to Perfect Cargo & Logistics Private Limited to receive the gift. The last transaction -- an amount of Rs 4.73 lakh -- was made on June 27, Tuesday. "I realised I was duped when the executive of Perfect Cargo asked for another Rs 67,000," she said.

After she confronted the executive, the mobile number 92337 37808 went dead.

To be sure, the scammers used the genuine company's name to dupe the woman.

She contacted Onmanorama to tell her story so that others would not lose their money.

Phishing by a Facebook friend
Five months ago, Anuja (*Name changed to protect identity) received a friend request on Facebook from one 'DrKennedy Nick Moores'. (https://www.facebook.com/anil.moun.3720).

She checked the profile and found that he was a doctor from Berlin who stayed in Birmingham, UK. She accepted the request but neither of them made any contact.

Two weeks ago, he sent a 'hi'. She replied, considering he was contacting me after five months. "Initially, he used to wish me good morning and good afternoon and ask if I had lunch," Anuja said.

Then, he started talking about his work in the operation theatre.

Last week, he asked about my family. "I told him about my husband. He said he had three children, the first one was adopted and the next two his biological children," she said. "He sent me their photographs, too," she said.

After that, he asked her for her postal address because he had bought "an expensive gift" for her from the mall. "I told him I don't want any gift because we hardly know each other. But he insisted," she said.

Anuja then checked with her manager at her workplace. "He told me to send the address because it was a gift," she said.

After two days, Anuja got a call purportedly from Perfect Cargo saying she would have to shell out Rs 25,400 to receive the gift. "I checked Google and found the courier company was genuine. But I did not have the money," she said.

She contacted Dr Moore on Facebook and said he should spend the money if he wanted to gift something. "But he got angry and told me that I was insulting him. He said he cannot send money from the UK and he does not like to bargain," she said.

The female executive from the 'logistic company' contacted again and said the package had an Apple iPhone and shared the account number of Jithendra with the Bank of Maharashtra at Mumbai's Mira Road. She GPayed the money on June 17.

The next day, the executive called her again to tell her that the package was now with the Income-Tax Department because while scanning the officials found £40,000 (Rs 40 lakh) hidden inside the package.

The executive asked for Rs 87,000 to get a court order to release the money from I-T Department and convert it to Indian currency. "When I contacted Moore, he said I can ignore the package if I did not want the money. He told me he sent the money to help solve all her problems," Anuja said.

By then, she had fallen for the 'sunk cost fallacy' or trap. Economists describe 'sunk cost trap' as a state of mind where a person hesitates to turn back despite knowing that continuing with the course of action would do more harm because they had made considerable emotional or monetary investments.

On June 19, Anuja transferred Rs 87,000 to Jithendra's account using GPay. But it did not stop there. The woman called her again the next day and asked her if she paid income tax and sought her PAN and Aadhaar. "The woman told me that I would need a NOC from the Income Tax Department to get the money in my account, and for that, I would need to send another Rs 2.17 lakh," Anuja said.

The accountant did not have that kind of money with her. Anuja told the woman that she would send a signed cheque which she could use after the money was credited. The executive agreed to it. But when Anuja was at the post office to send the cheque, the woman called her again to tell that the Income Tax officials refused to accept a cheque without money in the bank. Anuja's manager also got angry with the female executive in Mumbai for asking for so much money.

Soon, the doctor from Birmingham came on Facebook chat and scolded her. "He told me to keep the manager away because he was jealous of me getting such a huge amount," she said.

The doctor also told Anuja that he was not able to focus on his patients because she was creating so much trouble for him.

She sent Rs 2.17 lakh in two tranches on June 23 by pledging her gold and borrowing from her relatives.

Then the woman asked for Rs 4.73 lakh to hush up the illegality of sending such a huge amount in cash. "She assured me this was the last time she was asking for money and I would get the money in my account in five hours," said Anuja. The woman also told her that all the money she took would be refunded.

Anuja borrowed again from relatives saying she would return the next day. She managed to transfer Rs 4.73 lakh to the Bank of Maharashtra account by the evening of June 26 and sent the screenshot to the executive of the courier company. But she told Anuja that the banks were closed and the money would be credited to her account by 11 am on Tuesday, June 27.

She waited. By 11 am, Anuja called the woman. But she asked for another Rs 67,000. "That's when it dawned on me that I was being cheated by all," she said.

Anuja contacted Dr Kennedy Nick Moores, whose Facebook URL suggests his name could be Anil Moun. The account is locked but still active. She asked him why he cheated her. He replied: "Don't disturb me today. I hate sentiments".