A Nagpur-based woman, who was formerly employed as a nurse in the Army, was duped to the tune of Rs 41.70 lakh by a man, days after he befriended her on a social media platform, police said. The woman is a resident of Gittikhadan area of the city.

“The fraud took place between July 15 and September 15 this year. A young man, posing himself as resident of USA, befriended the woman on Facebook. He later took the woman’s WhatsApp number and they started chatting with each other,” a police official said. “After a few days, the man told her that he was sending an expensive gift to her from the USA. The woman was later told that her gift has arrived at the Delhi airport and is lying with the customs officials. He told the woman that she will have to pay some amount to get it cleared,” he added.

Believing him, the woman deposited money into his bank account. Thereafter, she kept paying different amounts of money at regular intervals, collectively worth Rs 41.70 lakh, the official said. Realising that the woman has been duped, her husband lodged a police complaint in this connection and a case was registered, police said.