E-Paper
Three cyber fraud cases surface in Panchkula; victims lose over ₹3.2 lakh
In the first case, a 20-year-old BA second-year student from Raipur Rani, was allegedly cheated of ₹1.3 lakh after responding to an Instagram advertisement offering a handwriting and book publication job
Cyber fraudsters duped three Panchkula residents of nearly ₹3.2 lakh in three separate incidents involving a fake Instagram handwriting job, an army procurement scam and a fake NRI marriage proposal. The cyber crime police station has registered separate FIRs and launched investigations into all three cases.
In the first case, a 20-year-old BA second-year student from Raipur Rani, was allegedly cheated of ₹1.3 lakh after responding to an Instagram advertisement offering a handwriting and book publication job. The fraudsters initially collected ₹599 as registration charges and ₹2,000 as delivery fees before demanding additional payments of ₹10,000 and ₹17,000 on the pretext of processing her earnings. They later persuaded her to share a one-time password (OTP), following which unauthorised transactions were made from her uncle’s bank account. Even after promising refunds through fake payment screenshots, the accused demanded another ₹50,000 before the victim realised she had been duped.
In another case, Dharamender Yadav, a building material supplier from Pinjore, lost ₹1 lakh after fraudsters posing as army officials placed a fake bricks order for an army camp in Kalka. After asking him to dispatch the consignment, the accused claimed that ₹1.3 lakh had been mistakenly transferred to his account and pressured him to return the excess amount. Believing the claim, the complainant transferred ₹1 lakh, only to later discover that no genuine payment had been credited and the bank transaction messages were fabricated.
In the third incident, a 40-year-old woman from Haripur village in Sector 4 was allegedly cheated of ₹1.2 lakh in a fake matrimonial scam. The woman, who provides home beauty parlour services, came in contact with a man identifying himself as Vipin Gupta through a Facebook matrimonial advertisement. Claiming to be based in the United States, the accused developed a relationship with her and later said he had sent a parcel containing jewellery, clothes and US dollars. She was then asked to deposit money towards customs clearance and other charges through multiple UPI transactions. When the fraudsters demanded another ₹1.6 lakh for releasing the parcel, she realised she had been cheated and approached the National Cyber Crime Portal.
Police have registered separate FIRs under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and are investigating all three cases to identify the accused and recover the defrauded amounts.
