LinkedIn Scam: Mumbai woman doctor trapped in romance scam, fraudsters duped her of 28 lakhs

Online frauds are quickly developing in India. People are falling victim to various forms of fraud every day. It is now incredibly easy to defraud individuals using social media. The most recent scam case is similarly tied to social media. According to Amar Ujala, scammers tricked a woman by constructing a false LinkedIn profile. The victim woman is from Mumbai and works as a doctor. This type of scam is known as a romantic scam. A cyber scammer posing as an Irish surgical oncologist and plastic surgeon on LinkedIn defrauded a 53-year-old doctor from Mumbai out of Rs 28 lakhs.

This incident is from June last year. A 58-year-old female doctor from Mumbai has fallen prey to this scam. The female doctor is a single mother. She was messaged on LinkedIn by a man whose profile had Irish surgical oncologist and plastic surgeon written on it. His name was Jose Fernandes alias Santino. According to the profile, he was a doctor in Ireland.

For the last 11 months, these two talked on WhatsApp. During this, Santino said that he is a single father and has a seven-year-old son. Meanwhile, the trust between the two grew. Meanwhile, one day Santino said that he had come to India and the customs department officials at Delhi airport had stopped him for foreign currency. He told the female doctor that he had foreign currency worth Rs 8 lakh.

He told the female doctor to release it by paying the customs fee. After this, the woman transferred Rs 28 lakh to several different accounts. A few days after the money was transferred, when the woman contacted him, he did not give any answer. Then the woman felt that she was cheated.