A 23-year-old engineering student in Mumbai lost more than ₹6 lakh to cyber fraud while searching for female escort services online, the police said on Monday.
The victim, a research trainee in chemical technology from Tamil Nadu, stays in Wadala East, news agency PTI reported.
“While searching for call girl services online on April 4, he came across a WhatsApp number and initiated conversation,” an official said.
An unidentified person responded to his query and told him the charges for the escort services. Initially, the victim paid ₹500 on a QR code sent by the fraudster as a form of “advance” payment.
After this, the official said, the student was promised that a girl would be sent to him along with a driver.
Subsequently, he received a call and an OTP on his mobile number and was asked to pay ₹3,000. After making the payment, he received a message demanding ₹21,000 as “security deposit” and another message seeking ₹32,000 as “insurance” fees.
“He ended up paying ₹6 lakh to fraudsters who presented various pretexts,” police said.
When he realised that he had been cheated, the student approached the Matunga police station and filed a complaint.
On the victim’s complaint, the police registered an FIR under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita and the Information Technology Act against unidentified persons, the police officials said.
Cyber fraud cases
In another cyber scam case, the Delhi Police recently arrested four persons, including two private bank employees, for allegedly enabling a cyber fraud syndicate that cheated hundreds of people in and around the national capital through a fake investment app called QuantsAIS.
The scam came to light after a businessman in Patel Nagar complained in April, alleging that he had lost ₹16.7 lakh after being lured into investing via social media and chatting app groups promoting the application.
Earlier in March, a 73-year-old resident of Chandigarh was ₹10 lakh by cyber fraudsters”>duped of ₹10 lakh by cyber fraudsters who posed as officials from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and law enforcement, threatening him with arrest in a fake money laundering case.