Navi Mumbai: A 33-year-old Ola driver lost Rs 1 lakh to cyber fraudsters while buying gold at a low price. The cyber fraudsters, on the pretext of giving gold at a lowprice, took the money and stopped responding.
The complainant and victim, Amol Nakulwad, came to know that someone was selling gold at a low price from his friend. His friend had never met this person and believed him over a phone call.
Cheating case registered against 2 persons
According to police, Nakulwad's friend Ramesh Bhagat received a call from an unknown person who claimed to be selling gold at a low price. Later, Bhagat shared details with the victim Nakulwad. Since Nakulwad showed interest, when the cyber fraudster called Bhagat again in November last year, he handed over the phone to Nakulwad to talk. The victim talked to a person who identified himself as Sultan. After talking to Sultan, Nakulwad decided to buy gold and he shared his mobile number with him.
On March 5, 2023, when Nakulwad was in Panvel to drop off a passenger, he received a call from Sultan who asked to send money if he was interested to buy gold and also provided a QR Code in the name of Babu. Nakulwad transferred Rs 50,000 from his mobile phone using Phone Pe. When he called Sultan, he asked to transfer Rs 50,000 more to get gold. The victim asked one of his friends Santosh Kumar Yadav who transferred Rs 50,000 using Paytm. After transferring, when Nakulwad called Sultan to check money was received, Sultan said yes and disconnected the call. Later his number was unreachable.
Realising that he was cheated, Nakulwad approached Panvel City police and registered a case against two persons. The police registered a case under section 420 of IPC and 66 C of the IT Act.
10 tips to stay safe from online banking fraud |
Mumbai police cautions citizens
According to Cyber Crime Cell under Crime Branch of Mumbai police , the most common form of online frauds are related to banks, online commerce platforms where fraudsters, posing as bank /platform officials, convince the victim to share OTP, KYC updates and sometimes send the links to be clicked to access bank accounts.“People should know that no bank or institution is authorised to demand for bank details or PIN numbers. Unfortunately, educated people are falling prey to online frauds and losing lakhs of rupees,” explained DCP Cyber Crime, Balsingh Rajput.
