Lured of making money as 'playboy', MBA student loses Rs 3.77 lakh

This picture has been used for representation purpose

A 23-year-old MBA student, who lives at Nancy Colony, Dahisar East, was duped of Rs 3.77 lakh by an online dating site, which lured him by offering a post of a male escort (playboy, as they mentioned) and hefty daily earnings. He was looking for a job online when he came across the website after clicking on a pop-up message.

The victim got tempted and agreed to abide by the regulations of the dating site. He typed in his details, including email ID and mobile number, following which he received a call from a woman who posed as an executive of the company.

The caller asked him to transfer Rs 1,025 as registration fee and Rs 25,000 as processing fee. The victim made both the payments to an account in a bank registered in Kolkata.

In his complaint, the victim said, "After transferring the money, I received photos of three girls on my WhatsApp and was asked to select one. I was also told that these were my customers. However, I was again asked to pay Rs 40,000 as security deposit." Besides this, the complainant also paid Rs 78,000 as assurance money, which the caller said would be refunded later. "After this, I was asked to pay Rs 1.10 lakh for IT returns as the executive told me that the company files the same for all its employees. Hence, I agreed to pay," he added.

After paying the total amount of Rs 3.77 lakh between December and January, the victim kept waiting for an offer to visit his customers. However, as nothing proceeded, he approached the Dahisar police station and got an FIR registered in the matter under sections 420 of IPC and 66 (D) of IT Act. An officer from Dahisar police station said, "We went to Kolkata to trace the owner of the bank account where the money was transferred, but the KYC given to the bank was fake. Even the cellphone number given to the bank was falsely acquired and switched off. Further investigation is being carried out with help from the Cyber Cell."

Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here. Also, download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates