Pune man duped of Rs28 lakh in online fraud

A 39-year-old man has been duped for ₹28 lakh in online fraud by a group of people who pretended to be officials of a Japanese pharmaceutical company.

The complainant works at a private company in Pimpri.

Through a social media application, one of the accused, who identified himself as Dr Toichi Takino, approached him with a job offer as a procurement official in India for a Japanese pharmaceutical company.

The accused offered a job as a researcher and the executive director for discovery and research at the pharmaceutical company that he claimed was based in Osaka, Japan. The complainant accepted the job offer and sent an email to the address provided by the accused.

Once the complainant agreed to work for the accused, the man asked the complainant to mediate a trade with an Indian company based in Shillong, Meghalaya to procure a mineral called xanthoconite.

According to the complainant, the accused told him that the pharma company planned to do business worth $40.5 million with the Meghalaya-based company.

Under the guise of various charges and with the promise of seven per cent returns, the complainant was asked to invest ₹27,99,636 for three weeks in June this year.

Between June 3 and June 23 the man was contacted through message by the first accused, one female, and one person who identified himself as a British national. Among the two banks to which he transferred the money one is a nationalised bank while one is a private bank.

A case under sections 419 (personation), 420 (cheating), 34 (common intention), and 507 of the Indian Penal Code along with Sections 66, 66 (C), 66 (D) of the information technology act was registered at Pimpri police station.

Police inspector B Naikawade is investigating the case.