1 booked for duping Noida man of ₹4 lakh on pretext of buying furniture online

The suspect had told the victim that he will send a QR code, and after he scans it -- as the code is necessary to make large amounts of transactions, the money will be transferred to his account. When the victim scanned the code, the suspect took away ₹4.03 lakh from his account

The Noida police has booked an unidentified person for cheating a resident of Sector 107 of ₹4 lakh on the pretext of buying an old furniture through an advertisement on a website.

A case has been registered against the unidentified suspect under IT Act sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), and 66-D, said officials. (Photo for representation)

The 30-year-old victim -- Shantanu Sinha -- is a resident of Sector 107 in Noida. Sinha, who had posted an advertisement to sell his old furniture a few days ago, said, “I received a phone call from a person, who identified himself as Mukesh, on Monday. He told me that he liked the furniture, and we fixed the price ₹33,000.”

The suspect said that he will make the payment through Unified Payments Interface (UPI) as he did not have cash. Sinha said that he shared his UPI ID with the suspect, and to gain his confidence, the suspect transferred ₹200 to his account.

Later, the suspect later said that he will send a QR code, and after Sinha scans it -- as the code is necessary to make large amounts of transactions, the money will be transferred to his account. When Sinha scanned the code, the suspect took away ₹4.03 lakh from his account via multiple transactions.

Reeta Yadav, station house officer (SHO), cyber cell police station, said a case has been registered against the suspect under IT Act sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), and 66-D. “We are trying to arrest the suspect and an investigation is underway,” Yadav said.