A 31-year-old business head at a renowned developer company was duped to the tune of Rs 25,000 on the pretext of seeking monetary help after the death of a co-worker's relative. The unidentified accused had posed as the complainant's colleague, and had an email conversation, where he asked the latter to wire him some money as he was stuck in an emergency. A case has been lodged at the Worli police station and a probe is underway.
The complainant, a resident of Worli Hill Road received a WhatsApp message on May 5, from his colleague, informing that he would not be able to make it to work due to a death in the family. The duo spoke to each other on WhatsApp for a while after that.
A few hours later, the complainant received an email from the same colleague's name, informing that he needed some money and mentioned an account number and an amount of Rs 24,970. "Believing that it was my colleague who needed the money, I replied assertively and immediately wired Rs 24,970 in the bank account mentioned, without confirming with him over a phone call or message. Moreover, I even shared a screenshot of the transaction via Google Pay," said the business head in his complaint.
Soon after this transaction, the complainant received another email from the same person asking for an additional Rs 38,150, which raised a red flag and he immediately logged into his laptop to find that the email ID from which he was receiving emails was not that of his friend, but an imposter. He then contacted his bank and asked them to stop the payment, but it was already credited by then.
The business head then approached Worli Police and informed them of the cheating, following which a case was registered against the unidentified accused under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act. While no arrests were made, police were tracking the email ID and the Internet Protocol (IP) address to probe the case further.
