East region cyber police have registered an offence of online cheating after a 49-year-old woman lost Rs 26 lakh to cyber fraud. Cyber fraudsters, posing as representatives of a popular job portal, had promised her a job of a general manager (GM) in a prominent company and have been duping her since 2018.
According to the police officials, the woman, a resident of Kanjurmarg, works as a consultant. In 2018, she received an e-mail from an ID similar to that of a popular job portal, which offered her a high profile job. The accused claimed that they were conducting placements and offered her general manager job at big companies in Andheri and Kanjurmarg. The woman, who was keen for the job opportunity, believed them to be true and fell pray for the con.
After the woman showed her interest, the fraudster lured her into a trap and made her pay. Initially, they demanded small amounts for registration charges and service charges. As they realised the woman's eagerness for the job, they started demanding higher amounts. This time in the name of processing charges, Goods and Services Tax (GST) fees, documentation charges and so on and continued to dupe her. To make it look real, they would send her acknowledgements by email as well.
From 2018 to August 2020, they duped her to the tune of Rs 26 lakh. Finally, the woman realised something was wrong and stopped further payment; however she continued to believe that she would get a placement and did not approach the police.
Last week, one of her relatives told her that this all was fake and she would not get any job, nor her money back like this.
Realising her mistake, the woman then gave a written application to the police.
Based on her complaint, the police registered an offence of cheating by personation (419) and cheating (420) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) along with the Information Technology (IT) Act for identity theft (66C) and cheating by personation using computer resources (66D).
We are already trying to trace their mobile number and are in the process of freezing their bank accounts. We have also written to the bank for account details, said a police officer from eastern region cyber police station.
