A 38-year-old Powai woman who wanted to order a champagne bottle online was duped of Rs 61,000 after she searched online for liquor shops near her residence for home delivery of the bottle. The woman became the latest victim of search engine listing fraud, after the number that she found online turned out to be that of a fraudster.
According to the police, the woman, a resident of a high-rise in Powai wanted to order a bottle of champagne on Sunday afternoon. She began searching for the numbers of a popular liquor store in Hiranandani Gardens. She called on the number that she found online and placed her order. The caller, who introduced himself as Prakash Sharma asked for advanced payment. The woman told her that she would pay through her wallet, however, Sharma asked her to pay via her credit card or through net banking and asked for her card details.
Unaware of the fraud, the woman gave all her credit card details including card number, expiry date, CVV number and also shared the One Time Passward (OTP) number. At first Rs 900 were debited from her account, however, Sharma then asked for another OTP number on the pretext of closing the transaction, as soon as woman shared the OTP number Rs 61,000 where debited from her account.
When she told Sharma about the mistake, he assured to refund immediately and asked for her account number and transferred Rs 1000 in her account. However on the pretext of refunding the rest of the money, Sharma asked for another OTP number received on woman's mobile number. By the time, woman got suspicious and asked Sharma to refund the money to her account first after which Sharma disconnected the call.
Learning about her mistake the woman approached the Powai police station and registered her complaint. The Powai police has registered a case under section 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and under the sections of Information Technology (IT) act.
