A 34-year-old man who works in an IT company had recently lost Rs 21.97 lakh to a scammer.
Details of the scam
The accused had designed an e-commerce website for the victim and told the victim that in order to sell and deliver 1000 products from the said website to the customers, the victim will have to make some investment. The fraudster then induced the victim to pay the money in 50 transactions in a crypto-currency wallet provided by the accused.
According to the police, the victim is a resident of Panvel. During the period of 07/05/2023 to 27/06/2023, the victim who was interested in preparing his own e-commerce website, was induced by the scammers to join a WhatsApp group. One of the accused, identified only as Junaid, designed an e-commerce website and told the victim that in order to sell and deliver 1000 products from the said website to the customers, the victim will have to make some investment.
Accused Promises Refund After Deceptive Cash-on-Delivery Sale
The accused also promised the victim that the money would be refunded after 31 days after the cash-on-delivery sale. In order to make his con look genuine, Junaid also shared a screenshot with the victim showing that there had been sales of USD 56,000 on the website. Later when the victim demanded his profit, Junaid began demanding for more money and also threatened the victim. He then realised that he had been duped.
A case has been registered in the matter on Wednesday under sections 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention), 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code and section 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.
