A real estate businessman from Pune was duped of Rs 38.5 lakh in an online fraud involving business of acquiring a kind of oil for making vaccines.
A complaint in the matter was lodged by the 48-year-old resident of Mukundnagar area of Pune.
“The complainant is in the real estate business. He was looking for options for a second business when he became friends with a woman on Facebook who offered him a business opportunity,” said police inspector Shabbir Sayyed of Swargate police station who is investigating the case.
The woman said she worked for a California-based company that made vaccines for humans as well as animals.
The woman put the complainant in touch with a man who allegedly represented her company.
The complainant travelled to Delhi to meet the man who in turn introduced him to another man who promised to supply the oil to the complainant. The woman allegedly told the complainant that the oil was used in the process of making vaccine for humans and animals done by her company.
“She allegedly told him that the oil is a rare kind and is found only in Asia. The man, who claimed he would provide the oil for the complainant to acquire on behalf of the US-based company, sold him 5 litres of oil at the cost of Rs 60,000 per litre when they first met,” said PI Sayyed.
{{/usCountry}}“She allegedly told him that the oil is a rare kind and is found only in Asia. The man, who claimed he would provide the oil for the complainant to acquire on behalf of the US-based company, sold him 5 litres of oil at the cost of Rs 60,000 per litre when they first met,” said PI Sayyed.
{{/usCountry}}The police are tracking 14 transactions made by the complainant between last week of February and third week of March.
However, the complainant never received the oil even though the demand for oil and payment kept coming in, according to his complaint.
After the complainant realised that the set up was fake, he approached the cyber cell and registered a complaint. After an initial investigation, a case was registered at the Swargate police station.