Muscat: A number of Indian investors have filed cases against an Indian woman swindler who has allegedly duped them of millions.
Demanding her arrest, the cheated people claimed the woman fled the Sultanate in the first week of May with at least OMR 4 million (70 crores) and she is “enjoying her life” in Mangalore, a port city in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.
According to the victims, the swindler lured them by showing forged ministry papers claiming to be the in-charge of several projects.
“She lured us into the trap. She even produced forged papers claiming she was responsible for executing many projects. She wanted money and offered us interest. Trusting her, we gave her money after taking cheques. She used to pay us interest in the beginning but after a few months she defaulted on payments. When we tried to enquire about her antecedents, she had already vanished from Oman,” an investor, who has lost OMR 350,000, told the Times of Oman.
According to the investors, the woman has duped scores of people like him and details now available with them prove that more than OMR4 million were siphoned off within months.
“She used to visit the church and school meetings regularly to widen her network. By visiting these places regularly, she gained our confidence. We never thought that she will run away with our hard earned money,” the investor’s wife said.
The couple has filed a case with the police and approached the court too. “In one case, the court has given a verdict in our favour. We are now planning to file more cases. We want the authorities to nab her, retrieve our money and send her behind the bars,” the investor added.
Meanwhile, another investor who lost OMR 78,000 is studying the option to seek the help of Interpol through the local police. “We have moved the court. We are planning to file more cases.
We are also talking with our lawyers for options to seeking Interpol’s help as she has left Oman.”
According to scam victims, while some of them lost between OMR50,000 and OMR100,000, many small time investors lost OMR5,000 to OMR10,000. “She was taking money from anyone willing to invest. Whether the amount was big or small did not bother her. After the details of the fraud emerged, we realised that she had plans to run away after cheating us,” the victims added.
While some of the investors are already fighting cases in the court, some are planning to approach different police wings in the coming days.
“My family lost OMR 16,000. Out of that, OMR 6,000 was given by my visually impaired aged father, who is in his late 70s. He was in a bad shape after he realised that he was cheated. I won’t leave that woman. We will fight the case and nab her,” an investor, whose brothers also lost OMR 40,000, said.
Source : Times of oman
