Pune: Two persons including a woman who impersonated as an officer from the USA Embassy in New Delhi, were booked by Pune city police for duping a man of Rs 2.68 lakh under the pretext of helping him get a job in the USA.
Based on a complaint from the 30-year-old man from Aundh Road, Khadki police station has registered an FIR against Mary K Carson and Manoj Sharma.
According to the police, the incident took place between March and June last year. The complainant works as technical support associate with an MNC. On March 1, 2017, he received an email purportedly from Halliburton Energy Services company in the USA offering system engineer’s job. The email had an advertisement for the job and it was mentioned that Rs 2.5 lakh have to be paid for visa processing and flight ticket. He contacted Carlson who told him that the amount will be refunded after Visa stamping.
In his FIR the complainant stated that Carson had introduced herself as a senior officer from the company and charge de affairs at the USA Embassy in New Delhi. The complainant deposited money in installments to several bank accounts’ numbers given by her.
After he showed his inability to pay the balance amount in one installment, she gave him contact details of agent Manoj Sharma who offered to help him get Rs 3.5 lakh personal loan from a bank. Sharma took Rs 45,700 as processing fee for the same but the complainant did not get the loan. Also, he had deposited Rs 2.22 lakh in several accounts given by Carlson.
The police said that when complainant did not get any appointment letter even after making the payments, he enquired with the Embassy only to be told that it was a fraud. Incidentally, there is a senior officer in the Embassy who has a name similar to the accused Carson.
After being advised by the Embassy officials to approach the police, the complainant contacted Cyber Crime Cell and was directed to the Khadki police station for registering the case. After continuous follow-up, the FIR was finally registered on Tuesday.
The police have booked accused Carson and Sharma of offences under section 420 (cheating) of the IPC and relevant sections of the Information Technology (IT) Act.
