Police have launched a hunt for online fraudsters who made a 17-year-old boy transfer ₹1.18 lakh to their bank account by offering him escort services via WhatsApp.
Police were alerted by the teenager’s father, a property consultant from Sector 20, Panchkula.
The father, aged 40, told the police that on May 2, he was away at Karnataka, while his wife had gone to her parents’ home, when their home-alone son received a web link on his mobile phone that led him to a WhatsApp chat. The person on the other end offered him escort services by sharing pictures of women. Through various steps, the accused made his son transfer ₹1.18 lakh via his mother’s bank account.
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Eventually, when the fraudster asked him to come to a hotel in Peer Muchalla, his son got scared and refused to go. Later, the swindler deleted all WhatsApp messages.
{{/usCountry}}Eventually, when the fraudster asked him to come to a hotel in Peer Muchalla, his son got scared and refused to go. Later, the swindler deleted all WhatsApp messages.
{{/usCountry}}On returning home on May 7, the complainant realised ₹1.18 lakh were transferred from his wife’s account to an account in Rajasthan. On being coaxed, his son revealed the matter, following which a police complaint was filed.
A case under Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 384 (extortion) and 120 (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code was registered at the cyber police station on May 31.
In August 2022, a student of Chandigarh University was kidnapped from Kharar after being honey trapped. He was later rescued from a flat in the town’s Ranjit Nagar in less than 48 hours. Three members of the honey trap gang, including a woman, who had demanded ₹50 lakh as ransom, were arrested from the flat.