–S* made contact with suspect on matrimonial website, deposited money in various bank accounts to help him ‘relocate to Pakistan’
LAHORE: A woman has been defrauded of over Rs1.5 million by a gang of cyber criminals who duped her into giving them money in the name of marriage, Pakistan Today has learnt.
The victim, S (name of the victim has been withheld to protect her privacy) lost her hard earned money after she was conned by an international racket led by a certain Dr Abdul Alam who proposed to marry her.
S, a resident of Lahore’s PCSIR Society, approached the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on May 7, almost a year after the alleged incident took place.
S said that she first came into contact with Alam – who apparently lives abroad – through the online website: www.pakistanimetrimonial.com, which has since been taken down by authorities.
“I emailed my credentials and photos to Alam who fraudulently extorted Rs15, 75,000 from me,” the victim told investigators.
Sources in the FIA said that S and Alam had exchanged WhatsApp numbers and used to talk to each other frequently.
“They got very close to each other online but unfortunately S did not know that she was being conned,” an FIA investigator told Pakistan Today.
The accused Dr Abdul Alam, who presented himself as an illustrious businessman, promised to relocate to Pakistan in order to marry S. Investigators believe that Alam was hiding his identity by using a fake name.
Sources claimed that the suspect convinced the woman to pay for the customs clearance of several items he was sending to Pakistan. Since he did not live in Pakistan and was unfamiliar with the country’s customs laws and regulations, he requested S to send him money through other means.
The victim deposited the money in several installments into the accounts of Abida Rehmat, Imran Sajjad and Muhammad Arshad – all acquaintances of the suspect.
According to investigators, Rs450,000 was deposited in the account of Imran Sajjad in Bank Alfalah F-11 Markaz branch in Islamabad besides another amount of Rs375,000 which was also transferred to his account.
The investigation revealed that Muhammad Arshad received another amount of Rs500,000 through his UBL account in the Multan Kutchery Road branch.
Talking to Pakistan Today, Cyber Crime Wing Assistant Director Munam Bashir Chaudhary said, “We traced the bank accounts in which the money was transferred, got the complete record of the account holders, summoned them for investigation, but many of them don’t live at their given addresses.”
“One of the accused, Imran Sajjad, has confessed his involvement in the crime, but the remaining suspects are still at large,” he said.
However, he said that numerous complaints of such cases were coming in and that people need to be made aware of such fraudulent practices.
Surprisingly, the FIR registered by the agency pointed out that bank officials were not being very cooperative in providing details of the account holders.
“The accounts of the criminal gang are still operational,” read the FIR lodged against the suspects, adding that the role of the bank officials would also be determined.