Bhubaneswar: Friendship with unknown persons through social media may invite trouble for anyone of us.

A retired government employee from Cuttack city of Odisha has lost over Rs 20 lakh following his friendship with a lady from abroad through Facebook.

The incident came to the fore when the victim lodged a complaint in this regard with Cyber police in Cuttack recently.

As per the complaint, one Leona Jimmy from Manchester in United Kingdom had sent friend request to the retired government employee through Facebook in 2018.

The woman had chatted with the complainant soon after he accepted her friend request. She had then identified herself as a gold merchant.

Six months later, the woman contacted the complainant and informed him that she was facing some issues related to custom duty upon her arrival at New Delhi Airport.

The woman had urged the complainant to provide her Rs 89,000 to clear her custom duty dues. The woman had then told the complainant that she was in possession of 40,000 in British currency, said the complaint.

The woman had later introduced one John Martin from UK and one Usha Khanna from India to the complainant. Khanna had identified herself as a senior official of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), added the complaint.

The complainant had transferred Rs 20.61 lakh to the British woman through several bank accounts in between 2018 and 2022. He came to know about the cyber fraud when the woman sought more money some days ago.

“We have registered a case in this regard and launched a probe. We may seek the help of Odisha Crime Branch and the CBI in later stage,” said Cuttack Additional DCP Anil Mishra.