Trader loses Rs. 50,000 on scanning QR codes sent by man posing as Army officer

A conman posing as an Indian Army officer online duped a dry fruits dealer from Sion to the tune of Rs 50,000 on the pretext of ordering cashews for soldiers and asking the dealer to scan QR codes to transfer money to the dealer’s e-wallet.

According to the police, the dry fruits dealer had advertised deals on dry fruits on Facebook, and on Tuesday, he received a WhatsApp call from a man who identified himself as Manjeet and introduced himself as a major in the Indian Army. Manjeet told the dealer that he wanted to buy 80 kgs of cashews for men serving on the borders of the country.

Following some calculations, a deal was struck for Rs 80,000, following which the dealer asked for 50 percent of the amount as advance payment. He asked Manjeet to transfer the money to his bank account.

Manjeet, however, insisted on transferring the money to the dealer's digital wallet. To convince the dry fruits dealer, Manjeet sent him an image of his Aadhaar card, and that of a purported Army ID card which had a snap of a man dressed in army uniform.

He also sent a QR code and asked the dealer to scan it. When the latter did so, Rs 5 was debited from the dealer's account and shortly after Rs 10 was credited to his account. In a second transaction after that, Rs 9,999 was debited from the dealer's account. When he asked the `army officer’, the latter claimed that the process entailed that an amount is debited first and twice the money is then credited back.

"When I hesitated and took a bit of time, he video called me. He was wearing an army uniform and repeatedly told me that he was an army officer and would not cheat me at all," said the dealer, who did not wish to be named.

Choosing to trust the `army man’, the dealer scanned two QR codes sent to him and lost Rs 19,999 and 9,999 respectively. After losing almost Rs 50,000, the dealer realised what was amiss and stopped further conversation with the ' army officer’. He then approached Sion police station and lodged a complaint.

"Manjeet is still calling and harassing me, claiming that it is due to me that he lost his money," the dealer said.

"We have registered an offence of cheating and applied sections of the Information Technology Act. No arrest has been made so far, and the investigation is underway," said an officer from Sion police station.