KATHMANDU: Police on Thursday arrested three persons for their alleged involvement in defrauding a woman of around Rs 5.6 million who they befriended her via the social networking site of Facebook.

In a statement today, Metropolitan Crime Division said sleuths from MCD arrested conmen from assorted locations in Kathmandu Valley recently.

The arrestees are Suman Lama aka Puran Gharti Magar (21), Dinesh Basnet (34) of Lalitpur district and Ravi Thokar (37) of Makwanpur district, MCD said.

Earlier, the fraudsters befriended Sujata KC Paudel of Lamahi Municipality-5 in Dang district as Euans Smith of England in Facebook. After few days, duo chatted via What'sApp where Smith took the gullible target in his confidence, according to the statement.

Using an Indian SIM mobile number the fraudsters contacted Paudel to collect $ 1.6 million sent to her via Bank of America, New Delhi branch.

However, they tempted the woman to send some money to clear Indian tax to transfer into her account, as stated in the statement.

The fraudsters had asked her to transfer money to Jadgish Acharya, Puran Gharti Magar, Ram Kumar Sherpa and Sanjeeb Maharjan account to clear tax hassle in New Delhi.

She repeatedly transferred money via IME and deposited to their accounts, it said in the statement.

After realising being duped, the victim lodged a complaint against them at MCD.

Police also seized various ATM cards and cheque books from them.

Meanwhile, the arrestees have been sent to the Kathmandu Metropolitan Police Range for further investigation and action today itself, it said in a statement.