Bhubaneswar, Aug. 7: A 42-year-old teacher of an English medium school in the city was allegedly cheated to the tune of Rs 7.81 lakh by a man, who claimed to be a UK national.

The woman had made acquaintance of him through a matrimonial website.

The victim alleged that she had come to know Ryan John Smith, who claimed to be a UK national, through the website on May 20. "I got a call from the matrimonial website that my profile had matched that of the UK national, and we started communicating on WhatsApp," said the victim.

On June 6, the victim received a call from Ryan that he was coming to Delhi and would subsequently board a flight to Bhubaneswar. "Later, I got a call from a man, who identified himself as a customs official at Delhi airport. He said Ryan had been detained for carrying UK £1 lakh and a huge amount of gold. They asked me to deposit Rs 40,000 in a bank account to get him released - which I did," said the woman.

Later, the caller again demanded another Rs 2 lakh for Ryan's release. "And once again, I deposited the money. After sometime, I received a call from an unknown number and was informed that the British High Commission had detained Ryan and I was asked to deposit more money. I deposited Rs 7.81 lakh in six phases. Now, I find Ryan's number unreachable," alleged the victim, who said she had lost her entire savings.

The woman had approached the crime branch's cyber cell, which referred it to a police station in Bhubaneswar. A cheating case was registered today.

"We would investigate the matter," said deputy commissioner of police Satyabrata Bhoi.

In May last, the police had arrested 33-year-old Ghana national Annan Andrew Essein in connection with a cyber fraud involving Rs 40 lakh. He had collected the money from an engineering graduate, Laxman Badaik, between December 2013 and April 2014.

The police suspected a well-organised gang, whose members posed as foreign nationals with well-paid jobs, involved in the crime.

"The cheats procure SIM cards from other countries to convince their targets that they are foreign nationals. Once the target is convinced the fraudsters tell them that they are coming to India with a huge amount of foreign currency and gold. Later, the victim receive calls from people posing as customs officials, who demand money on the pretext of customs clearance and other dues that the fraudsters are supposed to incur," said a police official.