Navi Mumbai: Elderly man duped of Rs 17 lakh by cyber fraudsters

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A 66-year-old man from Navi Mumbai was allegedly cheated to the tune of Rs 17 lakh by cyber fraudsters on the pretext of offering him payment for an online task, police told news agency ANI on Saturday.

An offence in this connection was registered at the Nerul police station on Friday, an official told PTI.

"Four persons contacted the victim on phone on different dates, claiming to be representatives of a prominent e-commerce company. They offered to pay him for the task of posting his reviews on social media for various products," the official told PTI.

Believing them, the victim paid a total of Rs 17 lakh in several instalments from April to May 2023, he said.

"The man, however, later realised that he had been cheated as he stopped receiving payments," the official told PTI.

Based on his complaint, a case was registered under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 420 (cheating) and 34 (common intention) and the Information Technology (IT) Act against the unidentified accused.

In another incident, a 42-year-old software professional from Maharashtra's Thane district lost Rs 17.2 lakh after he was scammed by two persons who promised him easy money through a "part-time" job, an official told PTI on Thursday.

A man and a woman got in touch with the complainant, who is employed with a top Indian IT firm, on August 3 and offered him a part-time job related to hotel bookings, the official told PTI.

The duo sent him a link through the Telegram app to carry out the job, the police told PTI.

The techie was first told to make some payment towards registration. The duo then smooth-talked him to pay more on some pretext or the other promising him easy money.

After extracting Rs 17.28 lakh from the IT professional over the next few days, the duo became evasive when he asked them about the money promised to him, the official told PTI.

Based on a complaint from the techie, the Ambernath police on Tuesday registered a case under the IT Act. The police gave the names of the accused as Rahul Sharma and Sneha.

(With inputs from PTI)