A 26-year-old woman living as a paying guest in Bhayandar has been duped of ₹55,000 by cyber-crooks as she tried to help her landlady sell an old sofa and a washing machine online.
Soon after placing an advertisement to sell the articles on an e-commerce portal, the complainant received a call from a prospective “buyer.”
After agreeing to pay ₹8,000 for the sofa and washing machine, the caller said he would make an online payment before taking the delivery.
Fraudster sends a QR code
Subsequently, the crook generated a QR code and the woman scanned it without realising the money was not being transferred to her but was deducted from her account.
After receiving messages from the bank alerting about multiple withdrawals amounting ₹55,000, the woman registered a complaint with the Navghar police. An offence under section 420 of the IPC and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act-2000 has been registered against the caller.
