A 70-year-old retired man from Kamothe lost Rs 27.77 lakh to cyber fraudsters while selling an old sofa on OLX. The victim downloaded the online payment application PhonePe to receive payment for the sofa as suggested by the fraudster and lost money in multiple transactions.
The complainant had posted an advertisement to sell his old sofa on OlX, an online marketplace to sell and buy old items. The next day he received a call from a person identified as Sanjay Chaudhary, a resident of Andheri, and he wished to buy the sofa for Rs 25,000. He said that he would pay Rs 5,000 through PhonePe as an advance and later Rs 20,000 on receiving the sofa. However, the complainant said that he uses only Google Pay but the fraudster was adamant to pay through only PhonePe, so the victim downloaded the app.
Later, the fraudster called the complainant and informed him that he had transferred Rs 5,000.
“The fraudster asked him to click pay on a message received in his mobile and later asked to put in the PIN,” said a police official from Kamothe police station. And soon after the victim put in the PIN, Rs 5,000 was transferred to the account of one Arun Kumar. When the victim complained, the fraudster said that his money was also debited, and Rs 10,000 had been deposited in a parked account. While returning the money, he kept taking money.
Later, six more persons called the victim and in order to get back his money, he was cheated to the tune of Rs 27,77,235 in total.
Finally, he approached the police and registered a complaint. Kamothe police registered a case under sections 420 and 34 of IPC for cheating and common intention and sections 66 C and 66 D of the IT Act and started the investigation.
