Two held in Delhi for duping people on pretext of sending them gifts from abroad

A 32-year-old man and his associate were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly befriending people on social media and then duping them on the pretext of sending them gifts from abroad, police said.

A probe was initiated into the matter after a complaint was received from a resident of Wazirpur village on Tuesday. The complainant claimed that he was duped of Rs 30,000 in lieu of Customs duty for clearing a gift item sent by the accused from London, the police said.

Parvez Alam, the main accused, had created a fake account on Facebook and pretended to be based in London. After befriending people on social media, he would promise to send them gifts from abroad.

The accused then would ask them for money for Customs clearance.

Alam would get the money transferred into the bank accounts of his associate Kajal Kumari (24), the police said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest) Usha Rangnani said during investigation, it surfaced that the complainant had transferred the amount to Kumari's bank account.

Kumari was arrested by the police and she disclosed the name of her associate during interrogation.

Using technical surveillance, Alam was traced and nabbed from his locality.

Alam told the police that he, along with his associates, had opened multiple accounts in different banks in Ashok Vihar and Shalimar Bagh and duped people after becoming their friends on Facebook, the DCP said.

All their bank accounts have been frozen and efforts are being made to trace their involvement in other such complaints, the police added.