Beware of Virtual Billionaires

Being human we all are tempted to money, fame, luxury and even affluent foreigners. It is the tendency of many people that they wittingly or unwittingly prefer an association with rich and famous people and we Indians often become the prey of some deceptive foreign individuals who seek our favour just to befool or dupe us. Virtual Media or simply cyber world is a potent platform for such types of imposters and our irrational approach often push us to entrap ourselves in their frames.

Recently a Nigerian citizen in his late 20s impressed a school teacher by his deceptive identity and false emotions. The man who projected himself as a British billionaire in his FB profile was quite professional in enticing the girls from middle class families in India and then taking financial favours from them through emotional discussions.

The girl, a private teacher got trapped  when the Nigerain guy posed himself as a billionaire from London. Initially, the teacher got impressed with narratives of his self proclaimed charity for the underprivileged across the world. Later on, their conversations got personal and the Nigerian male proposed her for the  marriage and said that he would visit India.

A person posing as airport customs officer, called from a landline number in Delhi. To make sure that the parcel worth close to Rs 50 lakh reached her, she was asked to pay Rs 2.3 lakh towards import duty to Central Board of Excise and Customs. Nigerian guy on the other hand promised to refund the money on meeting the teacher.

She deposited the money in the account numbers provided to her over email and waited for weeks for the parcel, or her friend to arrive. What happened then? You are intelligent enough to predict the end. Here, I request all to show this smart behaviour while interacting with strangers on online social media to protect yourself from the fake virtual billionaires.