Tea vendor falls victim to currency swap scam

A tea vendor in Mumbai was conned out of ₹2.5 lakh in a currency exchange scam. The vendor was given a bag of newspaper cuttings instead of dirhams.

MUMBAI: A tea vendor in Goregaon East was allegedly duped of ₹2.5 lakh in a currency exchange scam. The DN Nagar police have registered a case of cheating against the accused.

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According to the complaint filed by Musa Sikandar Nagori, a Goregaon resident who runs a tea stall near an under-construction building. He met the accused who introduced himself as Mohammed Shardul on December 1. After coming to the stall continuously for a few days, Shardul informed Nagori about a female acquaintance who had recently returned from Dubai and was struggling to exchange dirhams worth ₹2.5 lakh.

“A couple of days after mentioning the dirhams, the accused asked if Nagori could take the dirhams in exchange for the current market price, he could exchange it later for a profit of ₹50,000. On Thursday, the two men decided to meet at Andheri to make the trade,” informed an official from DN Nagar police.

After the swap, the complainant opened the packed plastic bag in which the Dirhams were given to him and realised he had been duped when he saw that the bag was full of newspaper cuttings.

The police have booked the accused and an unknown accomplice under sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating and dishonesty) of the Indian Penal Code.