(Image source from: Indian housewife duped of 1.30 crore by Facebook 'fraudster' friend})

All you Facebook users, watch out! The new friend you have made on Facebook could be a fraudster and take you in for a ride, maybe a hefty one.

That's right! An Indian woman was recently duped off Rs 1.30 crore by a Facebook "friend" after he assured her a sum of Rs 9 crore to open an old-age home in Dehradun.

The victim, Beena Borthakur, a resident of Ram Vihar, deposited Rs 1.3 crore in various bank accounts only to realize soon after that she had been conned.

Police report says that Thakur, wife of an ONGC employee, got in touch with a man called Richard Anderson through Facebook in November 2013. The two often spoke on phone as well.

"In the telephonic conversations, Anderson told Beena that he wanted to help the people of India and came up with several proposals to that end. He also sought suggestions from her. Following that, he assured her that he would provide Rs 9 crore for the oldage home," Ajay Rautela, SSP, Dehradun, said.

A few days later, Thakur got a call from an unknown caller who claimed to be from the foreign exchange branch of Reserve Bank of India. He informed Thakur that she could claim the amount by paying the tax due on it.

Later, Thakur deposited the money in various branches and received calls from two other persons named William George and Kevin Brown seeking more money. All in all, she deposited Rs 1.30 crore in 25 accounts.

A case of cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property under section 420 of the IPC has been registered against Anderson, George, Brown and another person.

Efforts are on to trace the bank accounts where the money was deposited. Most of these accounts has been traced to Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

AW: Suchorita Choudhury