Mumbai: A 42-year-old man from Vikhroli was defrauded of more than Rs 3 lakh while searching for a rental property through an online housing application. The Parksite police have registered a case and initiated an investigation into the incident.
The victim, identified as Shriram Natarajan, currently resides in a rented house in the Vikhroli area. With his rental agreement nearing its end, he began searching for a new home in the same locality, as reported by Loksatta. He came across a listing on a housing app and contacted the number provided.
The person on the other end arranged a house viewing for Natarajan and informed him that the deposit would be Rs 2.8 lakh, with a monthly rent of Rs 43,000. Trusting the arrangement, Natarajan transferred the deposit amount to the bank account shared by the accused, without verifying the details.
According to the report, after receiving the payment, the accused turned off his mobile phone. Upon investigation, it was revealed that the property shown to Natarajan was owned by someone else. Realising he had been scammed, he approached the Parksite police and logged a complaint. Authorities have since filed a case and launched a probe into the fraud.
In a separate story related to the arrest of the fraudsters, the Cyber Police of the West Region have dismantled an interstate cyber fraud racket and arrested six individuals for allegedly defrauding a prominent company of Rs 1.93 crore by impersonating one of its directors through WhatsApp.
Between April 12 and 15, a senior official from the company received messages via WhatsApp from an unknown number claiming to be the company’s director.
The accused convinced the employee to transfer Rs 1.93 crore into an ICICI Bank account. During the probe, authorities discovered that this same account was connected to at least 11 other complaints registered on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal.
