While scammers are already known to exploit platforms like Paytm, OLX, Quikr, in a strange incident, a flat-owner got duped after posting an advertisement of his flat for rent on Magicbricks – a popular property website. Gave.
The victim – Rajeev Sharma, a resident of Jaipur, found himself in a scam after a fraudster, posing himself as an army officer, connected through Magicbricks and duped him of almost a month’s deposit.
News18 Tech contacted the victim to know how the strange sequence of events unfolded. Rajeev Sharma, who lives in Jaipur, Rajasthan, said, “I wanted to rent out my 3BHK flat, but I was tired of real estate dealers and chose to list my flat on Magicbricks.”
Several inquiries were made, but one particular offer stood out from the rest. A man named Deepak Pawar, who introduced himself as a CISF officer, immediately accepted the request for a monthly rent of Rs 25,000 without any negotiation.
The victim said, “He used two numbers – +91 7008346845 and +91 9124367583 – to contact me.”
Thereafter, the fake CISF officer requested Rajeev Sharma’s banking details to enable the transfer of three months advance rent totaling Rs 75,000.
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In an attempt to establish the validity of his claims, the scammers gave the victim multiple Aadhaar cards, some of which belonged to persons of superior rank, as well as other defence-related identification documents, including canteen smartcards.
Convinced of the authenticity of the so-called CISF officer, Rajeev Sharma shared his banking details. Now in this case, the victim was at fault that instead of conducting the transaction herself, she passed on the phone number of her teenage daughter, who is in class 10, to coordinate with the ‘fake CISF officer’, as per Sharma himself. busy with his work.
The scammer established a relationship with the daughter as per the victim’s description and manipulated her into transferring the money instead of receiving it.
The school-going daughter, unfamiliar with how the ICICI mobile banking application worked, entered the scammer’s banking details into the app – ready to send Rs 75,000.
But thankfully, there was only Rs 8,500 left in the ICICI account, which belongs to her elder sister, who is pursuing MBBS. After the transaction failed, the fraudsters tricked the girl and directed her to send Rs 8,500 to his HDFC account.
Upon realizing what had happened, it was already too late. Rs 8,500 was deducted from the victim’s account, but determined to confront the scammer, Rajeev and his elder daughter reach out to the scammer, but once again fall prey to his manipulations.
The scammer insisted that, due to “alleged limitations on her merchant account”, she would need to send more funds to make her account “eligible to transfer the promised security deposit of Rs 75,000”. Falling prey once again, he deposited another Rs 8,500, resulting in a cumulative amount of Rs 17,000 being transferred to the scammer.
After the family learned of the scam, they failed to reach the fraudster. He lodged a complaint on the cybercrime portal and is now waiting for the investigation.
Similar incidents have come to the fore in the past as well, where people selling goods online are contacted by fake army officers requesting to send payment without meeting them in person. But instead of sending money, they generate UPI request.