Mumbai: Builder seeking paints firm dealership duped of Rs3.40L

Mumbai: A real estate developer from Jogeshwari, seeking dealership of a reputed paints firm, lost Rs3.40 lakh after calling a fraudulent customer support number that he found on the internet. In another unrelated case, a student wanting to make extra money by completing certain online tasks lost Rs2.68 lakh to a fraudulent electric appliance company.

The Jogeshwari police said that the complainant businessman found the number of the paints company online in October. He was provided an email to send his requirements. On Nov 16, he received a call from a person claiming to be from the firm and said that his request had been approved. The fraudster then induced the complainant to pay the hefty amount as registration and security deposit. When the demand for money kept continuing, the man realised that he was being duped and lodged a police complaint on Sunday.

In the other case, a 29-year-old man from Versova came across the web link of an electronic appliance company that promised returns on completion of certain online tasks. The complainant ended up paying a huge amount from Nov 20-22 in 16 transactions. However, when he didn’t get any returns, he approached the police and got an offence lodged last week on Friday. In both cases, the police have registered offences under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act.