Chandigarh: Punjab police’s state cyber crime police on Friday claimed to have a person allegedly involved in multiple cases of OLX rental fraud.
According to official information, the accused, identified as Paramjit Singh, a resident of Kharar in Mohali, was arrested accused had cheated at least 23 victims belonging to the states from Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, duping them of approximately Rs 5 lakh through fake rental advertisements on OLX.
Sharing the modus operandi adopted by the accused person, additional director general of police (ADGP), Cyber Crime, V Neeraja said that the accused Paramjit used to post fraudulent property advertisements on OLX, luring victims with attractive deals.
“To gain their trust, he (accused) would share forged property documents and images. Once the victims agree to rent the property, he convinced them to transfer money as an advance rent, security deposits, or registration fees via UPI or bank transfers,” the ADGP said, while adding that once the payment was made, the accused would stop responding to the customers.
The ADGP said that the probe has revealed that the accused used to transfer money from the customers to his different bank accounts through UPI and other online modes of payment. Further investigations are underway to uncover more details, the ADGP said and advised the public to be cautious of the advertisements available on OLX platform and refrain from making any advance payment.
