Mumbai: A 45-year-old woman, who owns a popular pharmaceutical company based in Vile Parle was duped of Rs1.91 lakh by fraudsters on the pretext of offering her an international holiday package.
On January 2022, the victim, a resident of Vakola, Santacruz, received a call from a company named Courtyard Holiday located in Delhi offering her a family holiday package. They introduced her to a scheme where she can deposit some amount every month and at the end she will receive the holiday package and air tickets. After finding the company legitimate through some online research, the victim agreed to deposit the money.
How the woman was duped
They asked for her bank account details and debit card details, which she provided. They asked for Rs16,000 as registration fees. From February 2022, they took Rs12,500 from her account every month. Till April 2023, a total of Rs1.91 lakhs were deducted from her account. The mode of payment was automatic and the money was being deducted on a specific date of every month.
In November 2022, she sent them an email asking about the package but she didn't receive any response. She then sent a similar email to them again on March 2023, the result was the same. The victim even contacted the director of the Courtyard, Anshu, who disconnected the phone call without any response. Realising the fraud, she immediately approached her bank.
“When I went to the bank I was told that Courtyard had claimed that I took two loans of Rs2 lakh each (Rs4 lakh total) from them (Courtyard) and hence the money was being deduced from her savings account for loan repayment. Hearing this, I immediately informed the bank, in writing, that Courtyard is a fake company and to stop all the payments,” she said in her statement.
A complaint was registered on Sunday against unknown persons by Vakola Police. The victim provided the police with three contact numbers who contacted her offering the bogus holiday package scheme. The police have initiated a probe into the matter along with the cyber team.
