A 44-year-old flower vendor from Byculla East was allegedly cheated of Rs 1,04,501 after being targeted through a loan-related approach and later duped by a man posing as a digital payments service agent.
The complainant, Hiralal Satnarayan Gupta, who runs a flower stall near Hari Masjid in Madanpura, said that he had recently received messages offering him a loan through an online platform and had completed the application process for the same. Soon after, an unidentified man approached Gupta, claiming he could assist him with QR scanners, mobile banking, and transaction-related services.
On January 8, the accused visited Gupta at his stall and convinced him to hand over his mobile phone on the pretext of fixing the scanner and banking app issues and makes multiple unauthorised transactions from Gupta’s bank account to various UPI IDs, resulting in a total loss of Rs 1,04,501. The victim remained unaware of the fraud until January 10, when his son went to the bank to withdraw money and was informed that the account balance had dropped to almost zero. A passbook update confirmed several suspicious transfers.
Gupta said thawt his family is under financial stress, as his 22-year-old daughter is undergoing kidney treatment and requires regular dialysis, which delayed his approach to the police. He later contacted the national cyber crime helpline 1930 and filed a formal complaint. Police have registered the case under relevant sections of the IT Act and Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and are attempting to trace the accused and the beneficiary UPI accounts.
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