A Panchkula-based realtor fell victim to online fraud after a Kolkata man created a fake website of a cement company and duped the realtor of ₹2.65 lakh, police said.
In his complaint, the managing director of the Chandigarh Colonisers Pvt Ltd, Ajay Vir Sehgal, said for one of their ongoing projects, the company was in need of bulk quantity of cement. On September 12, Sehgal checked for online availability of cement and came across Ambuja Cements offering online bulk purchase.
“The website was listed in the top websites on Google. We contacted them and they requested a proforma invoice (PI) for the order of 1,000 50-kg bags of Ambuja Cement at ₹265 per bag,” Sehgal told the police.
Sehgal’s company transferred ₹2.65 lakh through netbanking: “Ambuja Cement informed us they will verify the payment and will dispatch the cement immediately on receipt of payment. After waiting for two more days, on September 21, we again contacted Amubja Cement but the WhatsApp number was not responding. Since then, no contact could be established with them,” stated the complaint.
Sehgal came to know later that the amount of ₹2.65 lakh was credited to the account of one Balaram Palley, a resident of Kolkata (West Bengal).
{{/usCountry}}Sehgal came to know later that the amount of ₹2.65 lakh was credited to the account of one Balaram Palley, a resident of Kolkata (West Bengal).
{{/usCountry}}“Palley had withdrawn the entire amount. We tried to contact the bank to get reverse transaction but the bank refused. Somewhere, it is the fault on the part of the bank too. If Palley had opened the account with an intent to defraud people, then what measures did the bank take to protect their customers from the fraud. No help has been provided by the bank to get the company back its amount of ₹2.65 lakh.
A case under the Information Technology Act was lodged against Balaram Palley and Ambuja Cement.