A 52-year-old man from Nagpur in Maharashtra was cheated of Rs 18.5 lakh by a conman who posed as a close friend of the victim, the police said.
The victim received a call on his phone from Canada earlier this month and the person on the other side posed as his "friend from Canada".
He told the victim that his mother was in a serious condition and admitted to a hospital in Nagpur. He also told the victim that he would transfer Rs 18.5 lakh to his account to pay for the medical expenses of his mother, an official from the local police station told Press Trust of India.
The victim later received a call from another person posing as a bank executive, who told him that the process of transferring Rs 18.5 lakh to his account was held up due to a technical issue.
Later, the person who had posed as the victim's friend called him again to transfer Rs 3 lakh first into the bank account number given by him for his mother's treatment.
He later requested for more funds from the victim who allegedly transferred amounts totalling Rs 18.5 lakh into the account numbers given by the accused, the official said.
The victim later realised something amiss and approached the cyber police to lodge a complaint, the official said.
Based on the complaint, the police on Monday registered a case against the unidentified accused under Indian Penal Code sections for cheating and provisions of the Information Technology Act, he said, adding that an investigation was on into the case.
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