How a Mumbai woman was scammed of Rs 1.3 crore on dating app through calls and letters posing from RBI, NPCI and IMF – Times of India

A 65-year-old woman from south Mumbai has been defrauded of Rs 1.3 crore in a sophisticated scam orchestrated through a dating app, a report has said. To dupe the woman, the fraudsters employed a combination of emotional manipulation, fake identities and impersonation of officials from various financial institutions over a period of more than a year.
According to a report in TOI, the victim is a homemaker and she encountered the scam in April 2023 while using the dating app.

How she fell for scam

According to the report, the woman met the scammer, who identified himself as Paul Rutherford, an American civil engineer working in the Philippines, on dating app “International Cupid.” After gaining her trust, Rutherford fabricated a story about an accident on his construction site, claiming he needed money to avoid legal trouble and deportation.
According to the report, the victim sent him money in the form of bitcoins for a period between April and June 2023. The scam escalated when Rutherford promised to repay the victim. He said that he has sent the woman a parcel containing $2 million.

Scammers involve fake bank employees, government officials

In June 2023, she received a call from a woman claiming to be Priya Sharma, a Delhi airport official, who informed her that the parcel had been confiscated by customs. The woman was then told to make several payments over the following months, supposedly to cover government charges for the parcel’s release.
The scam didn’t stop here. The fraudsters then expanded the deception by involving impersonators from various financial institutions. In January 2024, a man claiming to be an employee of Bank of America in New Delhi contacted the victim, informing her that the $2 million had been transferred to the bank. He even sent her a fake ATM card with her name on it.

Calls from fake RBI, home ministry, IMF and NPCI officials

According to the report, the victim also received calls from women posing as officials from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), who sent her a letter with forged RBI and Ministry of Home Affairs letterheads. The letter promised that dollars would be converted to Indian rupees and she would receive Rs 17 crore in her bank account.
To further dupe her of money, in May 2024, the scammers continued with calls from individuals claiming to be employees of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), assuring the victim that all the money she had paid would be refunded, but she needed to pay fees to NPCI.
A fake banker from a leading private bank also contacted her, demanding “intercity charges” for the supposed refund. By June 2024, the victim had reportedly paid a total of Rs 1.3 crore to the fraudsters.
She has filed a police complaint stating that she continues to receive calls demanding more money and that she needs to review her bank records to determine the full extent of her financial losses.