A 22-year optician businessman from Sion has been duped to the tune of Rs 1 lakh on the pretext of supplying safety gears to the soldiers in Galwan valley. The fraudster posing as an Army officer lured the businessman on the pretext of helping the soldiers and duped him. The area of Galwan Valley was recently in news where 20 Indian soldiers were martyred after they were attacked by China’s People's Liberation Army.
The businessman who has a optics shop and also works on a e-commerce platform received a call on June 28 from one Anand Singh who introduced himself as an army officer. Singh told him that he wanted to donate 4000 safety goggles to soldiers in the Galwan Valley. Since the order of safety goggles were for soldiers in the Galwan Valley, the businessman offered to sell them at a minimal price and deal was set at Rs 2.2 lakh with each goggles costing Rs 55.
Singh gave him the address of Videsh Bhavan, Ministry of External Affairs in BKC as the address for delivery of the goods and for assurance he sent him photographs of his Aadhar Card, Pan Card and Army identification. On July 2, the businessman sent the delivery at the given address and asked for payment. Singh then told the victim that for verification he had sent him Rs 2 and sent a QR code on his Whatsapp and asked him to scan the code and he will receive the payment.
As soon as the businessman scanned the code, instead of getting the payment, Rs 10,000 debited from his account. Feeling something was wrong he scanned the QR twice and again Rs 20,000 got deducted from his account. When the businessman notified the error, Singh told him, something was wrong with his e-wallet and asked for the victims bank details and assured him that he will return the Rs 30,000 as well.
As soon as businessman shared his card details another Rs 30,000 got debited from his account in three transactions, when the victim informed Singh about it, he told him that since the businessman has paid Rs 60,000 already, he asked him to pay another Rs 40,000 and he would then become the Indian Army's vendor.
The businessman who did have the money, arranged it by taking a loan from three friends and transferred it to Singh. However, Singh now began demanding another Rs 30,000. But this time the businessman asked the army officer to come in person to take his delivery and the money, but Singh told him that he was busy in a meeting and stopped responding. The businessman then realised his mistake and approached the Sion police and registered his complaint.
On the complaint of the businessman the Sion police has registered an offence under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) section of cheating (420) and under the Information Technology act. However, no arrest has been made so far said an officer from Sion police station.
