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Three Chandigarh residents fall prey to cyber crimes
In the first case, a woman, who lives in Chandigarh’s Sector 37, was duped of ₹1.10 lakh by a man whom she befriended online
Three city residents fell prey to cyber criminals who employed various tactics to defraud them of a total of ₹1.5 lakh.
In the first case, a Sector-37 based woman was duped of ₹1.10 lakh by a man whom she befriended online.
The woman told the police that she had been interacting with a man named Leonardo Antonia on Instagram. On January 25, he told her that he had sent her a gift from UK. Later, she received calls from customs officials informing her that she needed to pay customs fee to receive the international delivery.
As a result, she paid ₹1.10 lakh for customs clearance, but never received the gift. Realising she had been duped, she contacted the police.
Another fake power bill scam
In another cyber fraud, a resident of Raipur Khurd lost ₹34,090 after believing a fake text message regarding an unpaid electricity bill.
The victim, Ravinder Kumar, informed the police that he owns an electronics shop in Raipur Khurd.
On January 21, he received a text message informing him that his electricity connection will be disconnected by evening due to non-payment of the December bill. Alarmed, he contacted the phone number mentioned in the message and was informed that he will get a call back soon.
After some time, another person called him and asked him download AnyDesk app and fill in his bank account details, following which two transactions of ₹100 and ₹14,548 were made. The caller then told him that the payment was not getting through and asked him for credit card details. As he shared the information, another transaction of ₹19,442 took place. On finding he had been defrauded, he lodged a police complaint.
Dhanas resident duped through OLX
In the third case, cyber criminals targeted a Dhanas resident through online market place OLX.
lost ₹5,200 to online fraudsters posing as CRPF personnel on pretext of shipping an Alto car.
In his police complaint, Sahil Ali said on January 26, he saw an advertisement on OLX for a Maruti Suzuki Alto. When he contacted the seller, he identified himself as Ashok Gupta, a CRPF personnel who has been transferred to Jaipur.
After the deal was finalised, Sahil was told that the car will be transported through army’s transport service, for which he was asked to transfer ₹5,200 to a bank account. Sahil said he was told that only ₹200 will be deducted for shipping while the rest will be refunded at time of delivery. On January 27, through another call, he was informed that he will have to pay ₹15,000 more for the vehicle to be shipped. It is then that he realised that he had been cheated and alerted the police.
Separate cases under Sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code have been registered at the Cyber Crime police station.
