E-Paper
UP man offers expensive gadgets for cheap, dupes South Mumbai teen of Rs 5.45 lakh
The 16-year-old boy, who is in class 9 and lives in Girgaon in South Mumbai along with his parents, was enticed by cheap prices of the high-end devices when compared to market rate.
The Mumbai crime branch on Monday arrested a 19-year-old accused from Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh for allegedly cheating a 16-year-old son of South Mumbai based jeweler of Rs. 5.45 lakh through his fake shopping portal.
The accused l lured the victim to his fake shopping portal with lucrative offer of five electronic items including iPhone 11 Pro Max, Oneplus 7 pro and others.
Dev Anilkumar Shukla (19), the accused, a resident of Patrakarpuram, Indira Nagar in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur, created a fake shopping portal called ‘amazonsellerpvtlmt’ to lure people.
“Nowadays, fraudsters create fake website with good designs to make it look authentic and professional,” said an officer from the crime branch.
The accused had given an advertisement on social media and the victim learnt it through Instagram that an Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max was available for Rs 18,000 and similarly a OnePlus 7 Pro was available for Rs 15,000 along with several other branded accessories.
The 16-year-old boy, who is in class 9 and lives in Girgaon in South Mumbai along with his parents, was enticed by cheap prices of the high-end devices when compared to market rate.
The victim called the accused on his mobile number mentioned on the portal and Shukla promised him to deliver iPhone 11 Pro Max in two days.
The victim initially paid him money through his mother’s debit card and then sent Rs 38,000 for two mobile phones on PayTM.
According to police, when the victim did not receive phones in two days, the boy called again and the accused said the delivery boy had visited at his house but door was closed.
The accused told victim that he has to pay Rs 35,000 more as the offer date ended and the price increased. The accused also gave him some offers for other accessories and Apple Watch and made him transfer a total amount of Rs 5.45 lakh in installments between October 26 to December 11, 2019.
The accused then stopped receiving his calls and victim later found the number unavailable. He then told his father and a case of cheating was registered against the accused in VP Road police station on December 11, last year. The police traced accused’s location to Kanpur after an inquiry was conducted.
A police team then went to Kanpur last week and arrested the accused from his residence. He was then brought to Mumbai on Monday evening.
During the inquiry, the police found that the accused has cheated at least ten people using the same modus operandi and taken money from them. He was handed over to the police station for further inquiry, said deputy commissioner of police Shahji Umap of the crime branch.
