NERUL: A 67-year-old senior citizen from Nerul was duped of Rs 42,500 while ordering liquor online. The fraudster siphoned off Rs 39,000 from the senior citizen’s account after the senior citizen scanned a QR code sent by him, police said.
The senior citizen had ordered of Rs 3900 liquor and paid Rs 3500 online. However, while paying the remaining Rs 400, he scanned a QR code sent by the fraudster. But the moment he scanned the QR code, Rs 39000 was siphoned off from his account.
Though the cheating happened on June 14, the family of the senior citizen lodged a complaint on June 25 at Nerul police station.
According to police, the complainant is a senior citizen and he found a shop in Nerul supplying liquor online when he searched in Google.
Swapnil Ijjapawar, an assistant police inspector and the investigative officer said that the fraudster had used a well-known shop of Nerul to cheat people. “The senior citizen found the contact number of a well-known shop selling liquor online in Google search. He called the number and ordered four bottles of liquor of different brands,” said Ijjapawar. The senior citizen was willing to pay cash on delivery. However, the fraudster told that they accepted only online payment.
“The senior citizen paid Rs 3500 online from one debit card as the balance was not sufficient and the remaining amount he wanted to pay from another card. The fraudster sent him the QR code for the second payment. And the moment, the daughter of the senior citizen scanned the QR code sent by the fraudster, Rs 39000 was siphoned off immediately,” said Ijjapawar. He added that they called the mobile number of the shop, but it was constantly switched off.
Meanwhile, the Nerul police registered a case of cheating under section 420 of IPC against unknown person and started the investigation. Ijjapawar said that the police have warned several times during the lockdown to do not fall prey to online liquor shopping.
Even commissioner of police Sanjay Kumar tweeted that there is no online sell of liquor in Maharashtra and appealed to avoid such a trap.
