A 45-year-old man who posted an advert online to rent his vacant apartment in Pune was tricked out of Rs 1.50 lakh by a cyber crook who posed as an army official and, under the pretext to make an advance payment, tricked him into transferring money. An FIR was registered at the MIDC police station on 5 June.
The complainant works as a sales manager in a property consultancy company in MIDC. His 82-year-old father owns a flat in Pune but recently moved in with the Complainant and the family decided to rent his flat in Pune.
On June 3, he ran online ads on 99acres.com, MagicBricks and NoBroker. He received a phone call the next day from an “army officer”, who was interested in renting the apartment.
The caller asked the complainant to send photos and videos of his apartment. Afterwards, the caller said he was ready to rent the flat and introduced himself as an Indian army captain, police said. He agreed to pay rent of Rs 46,000 and a deposit of Rs 1.84 lakh.
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PrimeThe caller then sent him an Aadhaar card, a PAN card and a driving license in the name of a person from Andhra Pradesh. He also sent the army ID, including his photo with the same name, police said.
The caller then said he had a smart card and asked the complainant to send Rs 10, saying he would get the money back. The plaintiff sent him Rs 10 and soon after received Rs 10 in his account. The caller then asked him to send Rs 49,000 for “security reasons” and told him that the amount would not be debited.
The complainant sent the money but did not receive the same amount in return. The caller told him that there was a technical error and further requested the complainant to deposit a total of Rs 1.50 lakh in three transactions. He then turned off his phone. The complainant then turned to the police.
