After cheating sellers and buyers who posted advertisement on the portal of market places via online transfer tricks, fraudsters are now also using brazen offline methods by physically meeting the portal users.
Sleuths of the Kasarvadavali police station in Thane have apprehended two crooks who had cheated a person by giving him dud cheque towards payment of a used laptop which was posted for sale on a reputed online marketplace - OLX.
According to the police the crooks approached the complainant who had posted an advertisement seeking buyers for his sparingly used laptop priced at Rs. 2.30 lakh. The crooks who were later identified as Royce Josh Sanchez alias Peter (30) and his accomplice-Siddesh Sainath Sawant (30) established contact with the seller, expressing their interest in buying the gadget.
After inspecting the gadget, the duo agreed to buy and doled out a bearer cheque to withdraw Rs.2.30 lakh. However, when the complainant approached the bank to withdraw cash, he was shocked to learn that the cheque was defunct software company.
By then the duo had vanished with the laptop. Based on input from informers and technical surveillance, a team led by API-Shahadev Paalve under the supervision of Senior Police Inspector- Kishore Khairnar apprehended the duo and recovered the laptop which they had sold off to a dealer in Lamington Road, Mumbai.
The mobile which was used by the crroks to establish contact with the seller has also been seized. Not ruling out their involvement in similar crimes in and around the region, the police have booked the duo under section 420 of the IPC.
Further investigations were underway.
