Mumbai: A 54-year-old Mumbai-based businessman was duped to the tune of ₹2 lakh by a cyber fraudster on the pretext of ordering an ECG machine posing as an official from the military hospital. While no arrests have been made yet, police have registered a case against an unknown person under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act.
According to police sources, the incident occurred on December 8, when the complainant, who runs a bio-medical electronics equipment business, received a call from an imposter claiming to be an official working with a military hospital. Police said, usually the complainant takes an advance, however, when it comes to a government order, he pays an amount for tender.
Subsequently, the caller, who identified himself as Kuldeep Singh from the Military hospital in Santacruz, said that he wanted to place an order for five ECG simulator machines for the hospital. Singh also sent a catalogue of the machines along with quotations, to sell his con. To authenticate the payment, Singh's associate called the complainant and asked him to send ₹5 for a test transaction.
Surprisingly, this man asked the complainant to wire ₹80,000 and he would return ₹79,995, but failed to get the money back. While the fraudster claimed that there was some error and asked him to click on the links sent to retrieve the money, the businessman ended up losing another ₹1.2 lakh.
Realising that he was duped, he immediately approached the Goregaon Police and registered a case against the unidentified accused, who was booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act for cheating and impersonation.
Police have asked the netizens to be cautious when the unknown user asks you to wire any amount of money, big or small, as it might as well be an imposter defrauding you.
