City resident loses Rs72K to online fraudster

Ludhiana: A Kidwai Nagar resident has lost Rs72,000 to an online fraudster. Division 2 police lodged an FIR in the matter after an investigation for six months. Complainant Ravinder Kumar, a yarn trader, told police he had ordered a perfume from a famous shopping website for Rs890. He had received the delivery of the perfume on February 5, but he did not like the perfume and wanted to return it, for which he had searched some contacts online.

Kumar added he had established one contact and called up the person to return the perfume. The man who answered the call asked for his debit card details. Soon after sharing his details, he received a message that in two transactions, Rs32,000 and Rs40,000 had been withdrawn from his account.

Division 2 SHO inspector Surinder Kumar said the FIR had been lodged after investigation by the cyber cell. During the investigation, the cyber unit found the modus operandi of nine more complainants similar. Therefore, all the cases have been added in the same FIR, and investigation of the 10 cases would be done together.

The official added that the nine cases of online losses were: (i) Model Town resident Bharat Dhawan lost Rs13,000 for a mobile phone (ii) Kila Raipur resident Ravinder Kumar lost Rs30,000 for a piano (iii) Sumit Sharma of Model Town Extension lost Rs 750 for spectacles (iv) Alisha Kharbanda of Chandigarh Road lost Rs91,165 for a saree (v) loss of Rs5,000 by Namita Agarwal of Jalandhar Bypass lost Rs5,000 for various items (vi) Shimlapuri resident Yogesh Bhardwaj lost Rs9,000 (vii) Kakowal Road resident Navjot Tahi lost Rs3,000 for make-up products (viii) Gill Road resident Dinesh Kumar lost Rs40,000; and (ix) Amandeep Singh of Dugri lost Rs17,000 for a biometric machine.

An FIR has been registered under sections 420 (cheating), and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and I-T Act on Tuesday.


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