Samosa scam: Eatery ends up losing ₹28 K to cyber conman

Reportedly, a man posing as an army lieutenant called one of the owners of the shop and ordered samosa for a week-long official event. He later conned the owner during payment.

LUCKNOW: A popular city eatery, famed for its tea amd ‘samosa’, was scammed of ₹28,000 by a cyber criminal posing as an army lieutenant, on the pretext of ordering samosa.

A popular Lucknow eatery, famed for its tea amd ‘samosa’, was scammed of ₹28,000 by a cyber criminal posing as an army lieutenant, on the pretext of ordering samosa. (Pic for representation)

Reportedly, a man posing as an army lieutenant called one of the owners of the shop and ordered samosa for a week-long official event. He later conned the owner during payment.

Lalit Sharma, a resident of Lucknow and the owner of the eatery in Lalbagh area, said that his wife Nidhi Sharma was cheated of ₹28,000. “We are yet to lodge a written complaint with the cyber cell, while an online application has been given ,” he said .

The shop also has a branch near Husadiya crossing in Gomti Nagar.

According to reports , the manager Rajkumar Yadav received a call on June 30. The caller introduced himself as an army lieutenant and said that there was a training in the command centre for 15 days and snacks for 50 people were to be served in the morning and evening.

“After this, on July 1, the caller called him to the Command Hospital in Cantt with the order. He said that payment would not be possible on bar code and a mobile number was required. The manager Rajkumar gave the mobile number of the owner Nidhi Sharma,” said a shop employee.

“After this, the person who made the order called Nidhi, introduced himself as an army lieutenant and said that the rules of the army were different and he was sending a bar code which would have to be scanned to take the payment.

“After this, Rs. 2 was credited to Nidhi’s account to gain some confidence. Then the fraudster sent a link of Rs. 4,000. After scanning it, as soon as she entered the password, Rs. 4,000 was deducted from the account. When Nidhi asked, he said she should not have entered the password first and she should let him do it. Then, a link of Rs. 8,000 was sent. As soon as she scanned it, money was deducted again. Before she could understand anything, Rs. 16,000 more were deducted. In this way, she was swindled of Rs. 28,000,” the employee said.