A 60-year-old man lodged a complaint with the police claiming that he was duped by scammers to the tune of Rs 31.75 lakh on the pretext of providing him franchise of a reputed pizza restaurant chain.
According to the police, the victim is a resident of Buldhana. The victim after retiring from his job had been surfing on the internet about the franchise of a pizza chain. On February 08, the victim received a phone call from a Noida based person who claimed to be a customer relation manager of a company that provides pizza franchises. The scammer had created a bogus email ID on the name of the pizza restaurant chain through which he had shared information about the franchise process and charges with the victim.
Victim Deceived Into Paying Rs 31.75 Lakh For False Franchise Development Charges
Another person who claimed to be a 'franchise development officer' spoke to the victim and induced the victim to pay Rs 31.75 lakh in different bank accounts from February 21 till March 01 on the pretext of registration fees, NOC certificate, licenses, decoration work, security deposit machine and equipment and other such charges.
Victim Approaches Police After Being Duped In Franchise Verification Fraud
On March 01, the scammers had told the victim that a six member team would be meeting him for verification of the spot where the franchise would be opened. However, when nobody came to meet the victim and the phone numbers used by the scammers remained switched off, he realised that he had been duped. He then approached the police and got an offence registered in the matter.
The police have registered a case under sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 470 (forged document or electronic record) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 66C (punishment for identity theft), 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.
