Gurugram man duped of ₹50k in WhatsApp fraud, couple held

The couple used to copy people’s photos from various social sites, put it as their WhatsApp display picture, and then used to send messages to the same person’s friends or relatives, said police.

Gurugram police have arrested a Gujarat-based couple for allegedly duping a city resident and several others for money by creating fake identities on WhatsApp, officers said on Thursday.

The arrest was made from the national capital after a complaint was lodged in May 2020 by the Gurugram resident, who was allegedly duped of ₹50,000 in May 2020. (AP)

The arrest was made from the national capital after a complaint was lodged in May 2020 by the Gurugram resident, who was allegedly duped of ₹50,000 in May 2020. The accused had allegedly made a fake WhatsApp account of a friend of the victim, police said.

According to the police, Rakshit Patel, 35, and his wife Neha Patel, 32, are based in Gujarat’s Vadodara. Rakshit used to work as a Visa agent earlier until four years ago, police said. The couple used to copy people’s photos from various social sites, put it as their WhatsApp display picture, and then used to send messages to the same person’s friends or relatives, said police.

In the case of the Gurugram resident, Preet Pal Sangwan, assistant commissioner of police (crime), said that a complaint was filed by the man on May 5, 2020, stating that he had received a message on WhatsApp on May 4 on which the display picture was one of his friends’. The man received a message from the account seeking ₹50,000 for the treatment of his friend’s relative. “Trusting him, the complainant transferred it to a bank account mentioned in the message but later found out that he was duped,” the officer said, adding that an FIR was registered in this connection.

He said there are more than 50 similar complaints, and police are trying to verifying the accused’s involvement in those cases.

The accused had also been changing their locations to evade arrest. “Last time, their location was found in Almora but when our team reached there, they had already left. Recently, they came to Delhi and were staying in a hotel and our team arrested them on Tuesday night. We are questioning the couple,” Sangwan said

On Thursday, the arrested couple was produced in a city court and was taken in three days’ police remand, said officers.