E-Paper
Mulund woman falls for online ad on dry fruits, loses ₹7 lakh
She realised that she was duped, no money was not credited to her account, and only debit transactions had taken place. The next day she went to the bank and found that she had made 11 transactions, transferring a total of ₹6,94 lakh to the bank account of the accused
MUMBAI: A 38-year-old woman lost ₹7 lakh to cyber fraud after she fell for an advertisement on social media selling dry fruits at a 40 % discount.
The complainant lives in Vinanagar in Mulund, along with her husband and 9-year-old son. Her husband works in a reputed private firm in Worli. She was surfing social media, and came across a group “Mulund Buy Sale Group” and saw an advertisement offering dry fruits at a 40% discount.
She noted down the number provided in the advertisement and later sent a WhatsApp message and received a list of dry fruit rates.
The person claimed that he owns a shop, ‘Mahak Dry Fruits’ in the APMC market in Vashi and sent his QR code for payment. The woman ordered 1kg of mix dry fruits and paid ₹1,140 through the QR code.
The man said she will receive the product in two days. After two days, the woman requested a refund as she received a call from him claiming that her order was not processed. The accused agreed to send money at night, said a police official.
Around 8pm, the man called her and said he had transferred an amount of ₹ 10,000 to her account by mistake and asked her to return the excess amount through the same QR code.
“The accused repeated the ploy and made the woman transfer several amounts to his accounts by sending her fake transaction details, the woman, without checking her account, kept transferring the amounts to him,” the police officer said.
Later, she realised that she was duped, no money was not credited to her account, and only debit transactions had taken place. The next day she went to the bank and found that she had made 11 transactions, transferring a total of ₹6,94 lakh to the bank account of the accused, said the police officer.
The Mulund police have registered a case and during the investigation, found that the victim’s amount was credited to two bank accounts in Delhi and West Bengal, respectively.
“We have informed the banks and are trying to get the details of the accused through KYC. We are in the process of blocking the account with the help of cyber police and bank officials,” Shiv Apune, police sub-inspector, said.
