Mumbai: In yet another instance of cyber fraud, a 44-year-old Mumbai resident, Shriram Natarajan, was duped of ₹2.8 lakh by scammers posing as landlords on the real estate platform NoBroker. The fraud, which began with a fake rental listing, led to the transfer of funds to a petrol pump account in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, and withdrew the money in cash.
According to the FIR, the victim, Natarajan, resides with his family at Runwal Forests, Tower No. 2, LBS Marg, Kanjurmarg (West), and works in a private firm. On the morning of June 28, he was browsing for rental flats on the NoBroker app when he came across an advertisement for a 2BHK flat in the same housing society for ₹47,000 per month.
The ad carried the name "Avinash" along with a contact number. When Natarajan tried calling the number, poor call quality forced him to disconnect. Minutes later, he received a callback from another number. The caller identified himself as Ashish Parihar, claiming to be the flat's owner. He sent images of the property and provided details, saying the flat was in Tower 4, Room 2705.
Expressing interest, Natarajan visited the flat and saw a nameplate reading "Garima." He was shown around the property by a tenant, who gave the impression that the flat was indeed available. Impressed, Natarajan called Parihar again and agreed to rent it.
Parihar then proposed a deal involving a Rs. 2 lakh deposit and Rs. 43,000 as the first month’s rent. Over the next few days, Natarajan transferred a total of ₹2.8 lakh — ₹50,000 and ₹30,000 via Google Pay, and the remaining ₹2 lakh to a Bank of Baroda account.
On July 3, when Natarajan tried to contact Parihar again, the number was unreachable. When he called the same Google Pay number, a man named Virendra Yadav answered and claimed he was speaking from Balaji Petrol Pump in Bhopal. Yadav revealed that the money had been withdrawn in cash from the pump by an unknown individual.
Realizing he had been scammed, Natarajan immediately contacted the national cybercrime helpline at 1930 and later filed a complaint at Parksite Police Station. Police have registered an FIR under Sections 66(C) and 66(D) of the Information Technology Act against unknown persons and are currently investigating the case.
