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Pune Police save online beer buyer ₹1.5 lakh
A Pune resident had to pay a heavy price for his beer craving as he fell prey to a cyber fraud
A Pune resident had to pay a heavy price for his beer craving as he fell prey to a cyber fraud. A total of ₹1.5 lakh was siphoned off from a 55-year-old’s account while ordering beer online during lockdown. However, the quick reporting by the complainant generated hope as officials expressed possibility of the recovery of the funds after the Pune police cyber cell managed to freeze the funds that had gone into one of the accounts of an e-commerce site and would be returned to the victim’s account in a week time.
According to officials, the fraudsters duped the gullible customers ordering liquor online by sending remote device control apps and taking control of the victim’s smartphone and siphoned the money from the accounts.
Ravindra Gawari, police sub inspector, cyber cell, Pune police, said, “As no wine or liquor shops are open due to the restriction, a man in the city browsed for a number to purchase beer online. During his search, he found one number and called; the person asked him to pay ₹10 as some charges and sent him a link to download an app.”
He added that unsuspecting, the complainant downloaded the app, presuming that it could a portal through which he needed to order the beer online.
“However, the link which was sent by the man was nothing but remote device control app link through which he gained the access of the complainant’s smartphone and while asking him to transfer ₹10 as some charges, the fraudster stole the bank credentials such as id and password and transferred ₹1,50,900 lakh from his account,” said Gawari.
After the transaction of the amount, the complainant immediately called one of his retired police officer friends who advised him to approach the cyber cell without wasting time.
“The man came to the police station with the complaint. We immediately verified the transaction message and found a mention of an e-commerce firm. We then approached the nodal officials of the e-commerce site and appraised them about the dubious transaction and requested them to freeze the payment,” said Gawari.
Gawari said that at the pan India level, there is a group called “Stop Banking Fraud’ which comprises police officers from various states, nodal officers of all the banks, nodal officers from payment gateway firms, and e-commerce sites.
“So, if we receive such complaint, without wasting time, information about the dubious transaction is shared on that group and the concerned nodal officer helps to freeze the payment and stops it from going to the fraudster’s account,” said Gawari.
He added that in the present case, the nodal officer has stopped the payment, and now the legal process to bring the funds into the complainant’s account is on and the funds will be returned to his accounts in a week’s time.
“The fraudsters might have tried to purchase something through the e-commerce site and made the transaction by transferring the funds from the complainant’s account,” said Gawari.
