Mumbai: A Malad-based woman was duped of ₹1.60 lakh while placing an order from a local wine shop of liquor valued at ₹1,750. A case of cheating has been registered by Malad Police and police are investigating the matter. While the unidentified accused has been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act, no arrests have been made yet.
According to Malad police sources, the incident occurred when the complainant wanted to buy liquor from an online store and had run a Google search to get the number, she got one in the result and contacted it. The man on the other side received the call and accepted the order, following which he asked her to make a payment of ₹1,750 through PayTM. The woman obliged and made a payment through GooglePay.
Soon after, she received a call from the same number, who asked the woman to scan a QR code that he would send to complete the payment, and she obliged. After scanning the QR Code, the complainant lost ₹19,865. The woman immediately questioned the accused, who claimed that it was a wrong QR code and asked her to scan it again to get a refund. "Using this modus operandi, the woman lost a total of ₹1,60,670 in a series of transactions after scanning the QR codes sent by the accused," said a cyber official.
Having realised she has been duped, the woman approached Malad Police and lodged a complaint, acting on which a case of cheating was registered against an unidentified accused who duped the woman. He has been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act.
While police have approached the concerned bank to stop the payment and recover the money, they are investigating the matter and no arrests have been made yet.
