Online classified ads’ portals, sites for fraud

‘Sellers’ disappear after pocketing money

As the country goes digital with determination, opting for online payment rather than cash transactions, fraudsters are becoming quite adept at hoodwinking the online customer.

Platforms like OLX and Quikr are being used to target the victims and cheat them on the pretext of making a deal. Once the party wires the amount, they find the seller's phone switched off and the seller seeming to evanesce into thin air.

According to a Cyber Crime official, at least one such case was reported every month in this year.

This is the newest trend, said Mr Avinash Mohanty, deputy commissioner of police, detective department, cyber crime.

“There is a trend we have noticed where the fraudster absconds once the money is wired into his bank account. We have been getting complaints in the last few months from a cross-section of people in the city. These victims deposit the money in the account numbers provided by the scamsters. They realised that they were cheated only after losing their money.”

The scamsters either make the proposed customer deposit the money or send a defective piece. Previously, the offenders used to call the buyer to a secluded area where he was assaulted and looted. It is only lately that they have started demanding that the customers transfer the money before delivery.

A 28-year-old private employee from the city was booked by the Marketing Intelligence Team recently for duping a man by posting an online advertisement for a phone sale. The accused, S. Satya Kishore, resident of Medak, had put up a mobile for sale and when a buyer agreed to pay after negotiations and made an online payment, the seller just switched off his number.

The cyber crime officials are actively taking up cases and deputing teams to nab the offenders who scam the unsuspecting victims. Most of the victims who fall prey to such scams are well