2 held for duping 500 of ₹80 lakh on portal

Police said the two men Lalit Prasad (25) and his associate Pardeep Kumar (25) were running the fake shopping portal by the name of “www.kart4all.com”.

Delhi police’s cyber cell on Saturday arrested two men for allegedly running a fake online shopping portal . Police said the two had duped more than 500 users worth ₹80 lakh on the pretext of providing them free gifts like LED TVs, phones, laptops among other such items as promotional offers from their company.

Delhi police’s cyber cell on Saturday arrested two men for allegedly running a fake online shopping portal .(HT Photo)

Police said the two men Lalit Prasad (25) and his associate Pardeep Kumar (25) were running the fake shopping portal by the name of “www.kart4all.com”.

“The two men were operating from an in-house call-center which they had set up in Tughlaqabad Extension. They used this to call their victim and offered them lucrative prizes on shopping through their portal. When a customer bought some item, expecting to win an expensive item, he/she was demanded more money. Once that payment was made, the duo demanded more money on the pretext of insurance or shipping charges. Like this, they used to cheat every customer of about ₹40,000 to ₹50,000,” Roy said.

According to the complainant who approached the police, he got a call that he had won a free gift which can be either a Sony LED TV, an Iphone7 or a Dell laptop and he just needs to purchase any product worth more than ₹550 from the shopping portal to avail the gift. The victim purchased a cotton bedsheet worth ₹649 and chose a Dell laptop as a free gift. The next day, he received a call from the accused demanding ₹12,600 as GST on the “free gift”. Once he deposited the money, another demand of ₹27,000 was raised as insurance cost for shipping of the product, which the victim also paid.

A few days later, he was informed that there was some problem with his laptop due to which it could not be shipped and the company wanted to refund his money, but for that they asked him to deposit ₹5,000 more. He deposited the said amount.

Roy said the two men had started their careers as tele-callers.

“While Prasad is a class 12 pass out, Kumar is a graduate from Delhi University. To earn quick money they came together and set up their own in-house call centre and formed a fake website to cheat people,” the officer said.