While scammers are already identified to take advantage of platforms like Paytm, Olx, Quikr amongst others, in an odd incident, a flat-owner bought cheated after he posted an advert of his flat for hire on MagicBricks- a well-liked property web site.
The victim- Rajeev Sharma, a resident of Jaipur, discovered himself in a rip-off after an imposter, masquerading as a military officer, related with him by MagicBricks and scammed him out of just about a month’s value of deposit.
News18 Tech reached out to the sufferer to find out about how the peculiar sequence of occasions unfolded. Rajeev Sharma, who resides in Jaipur, Rajasthan, mentioned, “I wanted to rent out my 3BHK flat, but I was tired of real estate dealers and chose to list my flat on MagicBricks.”
Numerous inquiries poured in, but one specific supply stood out from the remaining. An individual named Deepak Pawar, who referred to as himself a CISF officer, readily accepted the requested month-to-month hire of Rs 25,000 with none negotiations.
“He used two numbers – +91 7008346845 and +91 9124367583 to get in touch with me,” mentioned the sufferer.
Subsequently, the faux CISF officer requested Rajeev Sharma’s banking particulars to allow the switch of three months’ value of advance hire, totaling Rs 75,000.
In an try to ascertain the legitimacy of his claims, the scammer furnished the sufferer with a number of Aadhar playing cards, some that includes people supposedly of superior rank, in addition to different defence-related identification paperwork, together with canteen smartcards.
Convinced of the authenticity of the so-called CISF officer, Rajeev Sharma shared his banking particulars. Now, the error that the sufferer made on this case was that as an alternative of dealing with the transaction himself, he handed on the cellphone variety of his teenage daughter, who’s in tenth class, to coordinate with the ‘fake CISF officer’ as Sharma himself bought busy together with his job.
The scammer related with the daughter as instructed by the sufferer and manipulated her into initiating a switch of funds, moderately than receiving them.
The school-going daughter, unfamiliar with how the ICICI cell banking software labored, entered the scammer’s banking particulars into the app—set to ship Rs 75,000.
But fortunately, the account solely had Rs 8,500 as steadiness. After the transaction failed, the scammers tricked the little woman and guided her to ship Rs 8,500.
Upon realising what had occurred, it was already too late. Rs 8,500 had been deducted from the sufferer’s account, however decided to confront the scammer, Rajeev and his daughter reached out to the scammer, solely to fall sufferer as soon as once more to his manipulation.
The scammer insisted that, as a result of alleged “limitations on his merchant account,” she would wish to ship extra funds to make his account “eligible for transmitting the promised security deposit of Rs 75,000.” Once once more falling prey, she borrowed Rs 8,500 from her mom, leading to a cumulative sum of Rs 17,000 transferred to the scammer.
After the household found the rip-off, they failed to achieve out to the fraudster. They filed a grievance on the Cyber Crime portal and at the moment are ready for an investigation.
Similar incidents have been reported earlier than, the place folks promoting objects on-line are contacted by faux military officers who request to ship funds with out assembly in particular person. But as an alternative of sending cash, they generate UPI requests.
