Mumbai: A 43-year-old woman has fallen prey to a scammer who duped her to the tune of nearly Rs 11 lakh on the pretext of providing her a solar agency of a reputed company.
According to the police, the complainant is a resident of Beed. On June 13, 2024, the complainant’s husband had come across the advertisement on Facebook of a private company providing solar agency. The complainant responded to the contact number provided in the advertisement after which she received a call from a person claiming to be an official of the solar company.
The scammer asked her if she wanted the agency and once she confirmed then the scammer told her that she would have to open a showroom on behalf of the company and the company will be providing all the required materials and the showroom rent will be paid. The company would also provide two employees and their salary will be paid to the complainant.
The scammer had also given a fake letter related to the agency and between June 19 and July 10, the complainant was induced to pay money in a Zaveri Bazaar, Mumbai-based beneficiary bank account, on various pretexts such as processing fee, GST charges and taxes.
When the woman demanded her money back, the scammer told her to pay more Rs 2.50 lakh to get her money refunded. A case has been registered by the police under section 318 (cheating) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and sections 66C (identity theft), 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.
