Student from Mumbai loses ₹67,000 after ordering headphones for online classes

A 16-year-old student fell prey to cybercrime and lost ₹67,495 from his father’s bank account while purchasing a headphone and webcam. The student’s father, Shrinivas

A 16-year-old student fell prey to cybercrime and lost ₹67,495 from his father’s bank account while purchasing a headphone and webcam. The student’s father, Shrinivas Pankala, 51, filed a complaint at Santacruz police station.

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With classes being conducted through video-conferencing due to the lockdown, Pankala’s son was looking to buy headphones and a webcam for attending online classes.

On June 13, the student found an anonymous website while searching for high-resolution devices and contacted the number mentioned on the site to inquire if there was any discount on the devices. A police officer said, “The accused told him he is selling these products on special discounted rate. The teenager asked him to dispatch the products and agreed to settle the bill through online payment.”

According to the police, the accused contacted the student after sometime and said he has dispatched the products. The accused also sent a QR code to the student which, he said, needs to be scanned for the payment. After the student scanned the code, ₹67,495 was deducted from his father’s account.

The teenager then informed his father about this, after which they tried to contact the seller, but failed. His father then approached the police. The police on June 18 registered a first information report (FIR) against an unknown person under sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and section 66 (C)(D) of the Information Technology Act.