Mumbai: A 31-year-old food grain dealer from APMC market in Navi Mumbai fell prey to a con when an imposter calling himself 'army personnel' duped him on the pretext of helping poor people amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The accused duped the trader for Rs 78,000. Following the incident, the trader reported the incident to L T Marg police station after which an offence of cheating under the Information Technology act was registered against the accused.
According to the trader, he received a call from one Sahil Kumar who introduced himself as an army personnel on Saturday. Kumar claimed that he found trader's number online and said that he wanted to donate 100 gunny bags of rice to poor people amidst the pandemic.
The trader told him that he would charge him Rs 78,000 for the 2500 kilogram of rice. Kumar accepted his deal and said that he would transfer the money to trader's cash wallets. Meanwhile, for assurance Kumar send the trader his photographs in army fatigue including his Army ID card and other documents.
As per the trader, "Kumar first asked how much money I had in my wallet account. I told him that I had Rs 3500. He followed it up with a transaction and asked OTP number. As soon as I shared the OTP the money was removed from my wallet.” When the trader inquired about the transaction, he said the money was mistakenly withdrawn.
Promising that he will return the money the imposter asked for his credit card details. When the trader refused Kumar shared his regiment pictures. "When I matched his WhatsApp DP with the photographs, they were the same. Furthermore, he blackmailed me taking oath of the uniform and nation.
Finally, I relented, and I sent him my credit card details as well as OTP, “the traded admitted. After sharing the OTP, Rs 49,000 were deducted from his account. While trader was still trying to understand about the transaction, his bank contacted him to informed about the illegal transaction and blocked his card.
Following the incident trader went to L T Marg police station and registered an FIR, "We have registered an offence of cheating under the Information Technology act and our investigation is underway," said an officer form the police station.
