Hyderabad: A 70-year-old retired employee allegedly lost ₹38 lakh after cyber fraudsters trapped him through a fake Facebook profile and later threatened him with a criminal case, police said.
The incident is an example of a honey-trap cyber scam, where fraudsters typically use fake identities and intimate conversations to gain a victim’s trust before using threats, blackmail or compromising claims to extort money.
According to Cybercrime police, the victim accepted a Facebook friend request from a profile that appeared to belong to a woman. After establishing contact, the fraudsters allegedly asked him for money on different pretexts and later engaged him in intimate chats.
They then allegedly threatened to implicate him in a case involving the sexual exploitation of a minor and posed as police officials to pressure him into making payments.
Police have arrested a youth from Andhra Pradesh’s West Godavari district in connection with the case.
Authorities have advised people to be cautious when interacting with unknown profiles online and to report cyber fraud immediately by calling 1930.
