A woman associate professor of a government national college here was duped of Rs. 6.86 lac by her Facebook friend.
According to associate professor Pankaj Pandit, one Mr. Bezmin Dexon had sent her a friend request on Facebook, introducing himself as a
marine ship official of South Asia. A week ago, he told the victim that he was in possession of Rs. 80 lac in Indian currency that he wanted to send her as he feared his ship could come under attack from Somali pirates. The money was to be collected from the victim's house later on.

On October 28, a person on behalf of Mr. Dexon called the professor and informed her of an arrival of a parcel at Mumbai airport in her name.She was asked to deposit Rs. 12 lac in two accounts of SBI and ICICI , mentioned as Indian Government's accounts, to have the parcel released from the finance department. Heeding to the advice, the professor deposited Rs. 6.86 lac . On contacting the same person again, she was asked to deposit Rs. 12 lac more in the same account. It was then that she sensed something suspicious and got in touch with her colleague, Professor Sanjay Goyal. The two approached a police and lodged a complaint.

When contacted, Roshan Lal, Sub Inspector, Sirsa, said, "This is a cyber crime case. We are tracking the two bank accounts. Investigation is underway and we hope to nab the culprits soon.