A Kharghar woman was cheated on by a cyber fraudster to a tune of Rs 8.5 lakh on the pretext of buying old clothes. The woman had posted an advertisement on the Olx app to sell old clothes, however, the fraudster posing as a dealer of old clothes and furniture from Andheri asked the woman to scan QR codes to get payment for old clothes and cheated her monetarily.
The complainant, a 37-year-old woman, had posted the advertisement on the Olx app on May 17 to sell old clothes. On May 19, she received a call from a man who identified himself as a dealer in old clothes and furniture.
He told the complainant that he has a shop in Andheri and he would buy all clothes and she did not require to sell on Olx. The person asked to share photos of old clothes on WhatsApp that the complainant sent in two days.
On May 25, the man called her and said he was sending a man to collect all the clothes and he would make the payment through Paytm. He also sent a QR code. When she scanned the QR code, Rs 2 was deposited in her account. Later the man sent 11 QR codes and she scanned them all only to find out that she has been defrauded to a tune of Rs 8,50,001 that was transferred from her account as she scanned the QR codes.
Realising that she was cheated, she approached Kharghar police station and registered a complaint. Acting on the complaint, police registered a case against an unknown person under section 420 of IPC for cheating and 66 D of the IT Act and started the investigation.
