Mumbai Cyber Safe: Waiter duped of over ₹10 lakh by girl he met on gaming app

A 34-year-old man employed as a waiter at a hotel in Mira-Bhayandar was cheated of more than ₹10 lakh by a girl whom he met on a mobile group voice chat-cum-gaming application.

In his statement to the Navghar police, the complainant said that he came into contact with the girl while playing games on an application which also offers live group chatting facilities.

The girl claimed to be a MBBS student in a college in New Delhi. Soon the two became friends-exchanged mobile numbers and frequently spoke to each other and chatted on instant messaging apps.

Citing financial issues, due to the demise of her father the girl sought monetary help from the complainant to fund her education. Moved by her plight, the complainant transferred a total of ₹10,55,700 to various digital wallets within a span of three months.

However, when he expressed his inability to send more money, the girl started avoiding his calls. Realising he was duped; the waiter registered a complaint at the Navghar police station on Monday.

An offence under section 420 and 507 of the IPC has been registered in this context. Further investigations are ongoing.

Cyber Crime Cell advisory

According to Cyber Crime Cell under Crime Branch of mumbai police, the most common form of online frauds are related to banks, online commerce platforms where fraudsters, posing as bank /platform officials, convince the victim to share OTP, KYC updates and sometimes send the links to be clicked to access bank accounts.

“People should know that no bank or institution is authorised to demand for bank details or PIN numbers. Unfortunately, educated people are falling prey to online frauds and losing lakhs of rupees,” explained DCP Cyber Crime , Balsingh Rajput.