65-year-old woman loses

Mumbai: A 65-year-old woman fell victim to an intricate cyber fraud scheme, losing ₹1.30 crore to scammers posing as officials from various organisations, including the Customs Department, Reserve Bank of India, and International Monetary Fund.
The victim, who resided in the Chandivali area of Powai until June 2024 before relocating to Byculla, told police that her ordeal began in April 2023 when she encountered a stranger on an international dating application. The man introduced himself as Paul Rutherford, claiming to be an American civil engineer working in the Philippines.
During their conversations, Rutherford fabricated a story about a fatal accident at his construction site, asserting that he needed funds to avoid deportation to the United States. Convinced by his plea, the woman sent him approximately ₹70 lakh in Bitcoin between April and June 2023, partially borrowing from relatives. Rutherford had promised to repay the money promptly.
The scheme escalated in June when Rutherford informed the woman he had dispatched a parcel containing 2 million US dollars to her. Subsequently, she received a call from an individual identifying herself as Priya Sharma, purportedly from Delhi airport. Sharma claimed that a parcel addressed to the victim, containing 2 million US dollars, had been intercepted by the Customs department.
Sharma instructed the woman to pay various charges and taxes to receive the parcel, directing her to transfer money to different bank accounts. Between June 2023 and March 2024, the victim complied, depositing the requested funds into the specified accounts.
A police officer involved in the case stated, “The fraud didn’t end there.” To extract more money, the scammers posed as Bank of America executives, informing the woman they had received the funds released by Customs and had sent her an ATM card.
The victim then received calls from individuals claiming to be Ranjana from the International Monetary Fund and Meera Bakshi from the Reserve Bank of India. They requested further deposits into various bank accounts, ostensibly to exchange dollars into Indian currency, which they claimed amounted to ₹17 crore.
Despite transferring a total of ₹1,29,43,661 to the fraudsters, the woman continued to receive calls from supposed new authorities or agencies. Growing suspicious, she finally realised she had been duped.
The victim approached the cyber police, and as she previously resided in Chandivali, an FIR was registered at the West Region Cyber police station under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act.
“We have initiated the investigation but have yet to uncover any leads to trace the fraudsters,” the police officer said.